Double Double, Toil and Trouble
by tilante
Summary: Justin's in college, he and Alex have been secretly in love for months. Hijinks ensue. Fourth in a series - "Alex Gets Punished", "The First Time, Take Two", and "Justin in Charge" are the previous stories.
1. Chapter 1

"Alex, have you heard from Justin today?"

At her father's voice, Alex started, then quickly rolled onto her side in bed, grabbing the quilt and pulling it up. Glancing over her shoulder at her still-sleeping brother Justin, she tugged that part up higher, covering him. "No... no. Why would I have seen -- heard from Justin?" she called back through the door.

"He's supposed to have been down at the sub station for his shift fifteen minutes ago. It's not like him to be late. And he's not answering his cell."

"I'm _sure_ he'll be there _soon_," she called back, nudging Justin with her foot. "Why don't you head back down, and I'll try calling him again?"

The door started to open -- at the exact moment that Justin awoke and started to sit up. Alex swept her arm back, pushing Justin back down, at the same time calling out, "Just a second!"

The door stopped, and Alex breathed a sigh of relief, then hissed out under her breath, "Stay down!" Justin slid back down under the quilt, and Alex got out of bed, grabbed her robe, belted it on over her naked body, then crossed to the door, tilted her head to look out at her father. "Is there something else?"

"Yeah -- if he doesn't show up, we're going to need you to help with the lunch rush. So, while I know you love sleeping until noon on Saturday, I need you to get dressed and come down."

"Okay," she nodded. "I'll get right on that." She closed the door, locked it, waited three seconds while she listened to her father's footsteps going away. Then she crossed quickly back to the bed.

"Justin! Why didn't you set an alarm?"

"I did," he protested, sitting up. "I set it on my cell phone." He nodded toward it, sitting on Alex's night table. She picked it up, looked at it, rolled her eyes, then tossed it to him.

"Yeah -- battery's dead, genius. Which is why dad's calls didn't get you either. You'd better hurry up. You know dad -- I'm sure he's already docking your pay in his head."

Nodding, Justin slipped out of bed, stood up, reached for his clothes and started to pull them on.

"No -- those look like you slept in them! Here." Grabbing her wand off the desk, Alex gave it a flip and wave, saying, "_You need some clothes, but no, not those. Here's an outfit that just might fit!_"

Justin looked himself up and down, then looked over at Alex with a raised eyebrow. "While I'm sure this would look good on you, a skirt over tights isn't my thing."

"Oh, damn -- I was thinking about what I was going to wear today. Here -- _You need some clothes, but no, not those. Here's an outfit that just might fit!"_

This time, Justin nodded and smiled. "Nice. And clean too. Which reminds me, I ought to take a --"

Before he could finish, Alex waved her wand again, and a breeze rippled across Justin, leaving him feeling dry and clean. He ran his fingers through his hair. "Nice job." Then he frowned. "But you're not supposed to be using magic without supervision."

"Yeah, and you supervised me. Now get going." He started for the door, and Alex shook her head. "Justin! Where's your brain this morning? You come down from upstairs, and Dad'll know --"

"That I can teleport? He knows that." He smiled, then stepped to his sister, wrapped his arms around her, gave her a quick kiss. "I'll tell him the truth -- that my cell phone battery died, so my alarm didn't go off, so I teleported here and came down."

"You didn't teleport here, though."

"Sure I did -- I just won't tell him that it was to your room, at two o'clock last night. I know I'm a lousy liar -- that's why I just edit the truth." Justin smiled and raised his eyebrows. "I'm getting pretty good at it, don't you think."

"Yes, yes -- now get down there before dad comes back up looking for me."

"Okay." He gave her another kiss, then headed downstairs.

*

"Justin, that was too close earlier. You need to stop sleeping here."

"Alex!" Justin looked around the sub shop quickly, then leaned over to Alex and hissed a whisper. _"Ixnay on the ...."_ There was a moment's pause, and Alex gave him an expectant look, smiling. "Don't talk about that out here. Somebody might hear."

Rolling her eyes, Alex replied, "Who's going to hear? Dad's in the kitchen making sandwiches, Mom's gone upstairs for her break, Max is busy doing... whatever it is he does, and the customers couldn't care less if we were strangling each other over here."

"And," she went on, "that's what I want to talk to you about."

"Strangling each other?" Justin shook his head. "Okay, I know you like it to hurt, but I think that's going too far --"

"No, not strangling. Keeping track of where people are. I'm good at it, because, well, I've been sneaking things past the rest of the family since I was six."

"Six?"

"Yeah... that was when I kept hiding your Tamagotchi. Oh, that was so much fun, watching you run around in a panic, saying it was going to die... but that was wrong, and I'm not doing things like that any more," she said, seeing Justin's hurt-puppy look. "Anyway, the point is, I'm good at sneaking, and you're not. So, you need to stop spending the night over here. I'll come over there."

"Yeah, but no one's going to notice if I'm missing in the middle of the night...."

"... and no one's going to care if they find me in your room in the middle of the night, while people here _will _care if they find you in my room. Trust me. I'm the one who's good at this, remember?"

Justin opened his mouth to reply, stopped, closed it, frowned for a moment, then nodded. "Okay. I have to agree that you're better at being sneaky and underhanded."

"Awww...." Alex gave Justin a quick hug. "You say the sweetest things."

"I know." He smiled and reached out for Alex's hand, but she stepped away, shaking her head.

At Justin's puzzled look, Alex whispered, "Mom's coming down the stairs."

He turned to look, and, indeed, she came into view a few seconds later. "How do you do that?"

"Like I said, I've been practicing since I was six. It's just instinct now. Oh, and here comes dad, then Max will be here in... thirty seconds."

Their dad came out of the kitchen. "Justin? I've got three orders ready back here. What's taking so long?"

"Right on it," he replied, and headed into the kitchen.

"So, Alex," their mom said, "what were you and Justin talking about?"

"Just a minute," she replied, holding up her hand. "One thousand twenty, one thousand twenty-one, one thousand twenty-two...."

Max came running down the stairs, and Alex frowned. "Eight seconds off? Wow, I'm losing my touch. So, Mom, you were saying?"

"Oh, just wondering what you and Justin were talking about."

"Old times. Me stealing his Tamagotchi, that kind of thing."

"Oh. Well... I'm glad you two are getting along so well lately. I guess you've realized how much you really love your big brother, now that he's not around all the time."

"Yeah." Alex smiled and nodded. "Yeah, that's it exactly."


	2. Chapter 2

_12:52. _The steady green glow of Alex's bedside clock announced that time, and she slipped out of bed, stood up, took her wand in one hand. Justin would be here in a few minutes to teleport her to his dorm room -- he still insisted on doing that, even though she knew the spell just fine -- and she wanted to be ready to go as soon as he got there.

It was weird, when she thought about it -- they'd snarked at each other for years. Heck, even six months ago, if someone had suggested that she might someday date Justin, she would have thought they were crazy, sick, and perverted -- and made plenty of "ew" sounds to go with it. It still felt strange, sometimes, if she stopped to think about it.

_So don't think about it. You've got things to do to get ready._ Aloud, she said, _"Edgebono utoosis,"_ and gestured with the wand. Her duplicate appeared beside her, and she smiled at it. "Hi there, self."

"Hi," the duplicate said back, and Alex smiled. This was another spell she'd gotten much better at in the last few months -- the practice had definitely paid off. Before, her duplicates usually couldn't talk. Now, though, they were almost always able to.

"I'm going to be going to spend the night with -- my boyfriend." Alex frowned at her moment's hesitation there, and her last-second evasion. _I shouldn't have been thinking about how weird this all is. Now it's got me trying to avoid it._ "I'll be back sometime tomorrow. Your job is to sleep here, then in the morning cover for me. I usually sleep in until noon on Sunday, so it shouldn't be hard. You got that?"

"Sure," the duplicate said with a roll of her eyes. "How much longer until I get to go to sleep?"

"Go ahead and get in bed -- he should be here any minute."

As the duplicate climbed into bed, Alex picked up the shopping bag she'd packed with clothes for tomorrow. She had toiletries at Justin's, so she didn't need those. She'd have preferred to carry an actual overnight bag, but this being out was much less likely to get noticed.

She took another look at her duplicate, who was now in bed, facing away, so Alex couldn't tell if her eyes were closed or not. _Okay, Justin. Any time. _

Even as she thought that, he appeared. There was no puff of smoke this time -- Justin had gotten better at some spells as well -- he was just suddenly _there_, as if he'd been there all along, but she just hadn't seen him.

"Hey there," he said quietly. "How's the most beautiful girl I know?"

She stepped into his arms and hugged him, closing her eyes and smiling. "Better, now that you're here. Let's go."

"Sure," Justin replied, stroking Alex's hair once, then kissing her on top of her head. He spoke the spell, and then they were in his dorm room. Alex blinked in the sudden light, then smiled up at her brother. "Mmm... Saturday night in your dorm room. We can be as noisy as we want...."

"Mmm. I take it you want to be noisy?"

"No... I'm going to be as quiet as I can be. It's your job to _make_ me make noise. Do you think you can do that?"

"I'll bet I can." He smiled, tracing a finger across Alex's cheek, moving it in a circle.

"Bet you can't. Loser has to buy breakfast."

"It's a bet." Alex smiled up at her brother, then shut her mouth tightly as he gave her butt a good, solid smack. "Mmm... see? I didn't make any noise with that."

"No, you didn't. Let's see how you do without those leggings in the way, though." Justin pulled Alex's shoes off, tossed them onto the floor, then reached for the top of her leggings, ran his fingers around the waistband, trying to pull them down. Alex, however, had grabbed the front in one hand and pulled against him.

"Uh-uh... don't you --" She was cut off as Justin kissed her. Then one hand slid down to pull hers away from the leggings. "Mmf!" Alex struggled to keep her hand there, but Justin was stronger. Her hand came away despite her efforts, and Justin pulled the top of the leggings down, putting the waistband around her thighs.

His hand went to her butt cheek, and he squeezed, then grinned. "Nice... very nice. Let's get a better look...." Stepping off the bed, he took Alex by the hips and rolled her over, put his hand on the small of her back to keep her from rolling back. She tried anyway, and Justin leaned a little onto her, but carefully, not wanting to actually hurt her.

His other hand caressed her butt again. "Looks as good as it feels. And speaking of feeling --" He lifted his hand up, and Alex tensed a little and closed her mouth tightly, expecting a smack. When it didn't come, she frowned, then tightened her mouth more. _He wants me to say something. When I open my mouth, then he'll spank me. So I won't open my mouth._

A good ten seconds went by before Justin decided that she'd figured it out. Thinking quickly, he moved his hand back and down, sliding fingers inside the legband of Alex's panties, and began to stroke, feeling his way between her folds.

After a few moments, she began to squirm, and Justin smiled again. Not saying anything, he leaned over his sister, kissed her on the shoulder, then worked his way onto her neck, continuing to stroke between her legs as he did.

_Ohmygod, that feels so good...._ Alex was still trying to keep her mouth closed, but the growing warmth and wetness between her legs was working its own sort of spell on her.

Then a finger went in, and she gasped. No smack came, but Justin nipped her on the shoulder, eliciting a moan. Another nip came, and another, and Alex moaned again as the finger slowly moved in and out of her. "Oh... oh... I'm not going to let you win, Justin. You're not going to get a -- a noise out of me."

"Oh, I'm not?"

"No.... Oh!" She cried out as Justin smacked her on the butt. Another smack came, and his finger pushed in farther, and Alex shuddered with it. "Okay... okay, you win."

"Good. Now I'm going to make you make some more noise." Justin rolled Alex back over onto her back, then moved over her and kissed her solidly, sliding his tongue into her mouth.

Seconds later, he broke the kiss, and Alex smiled up at him, tilting her head to the side. "Bet you can't," she teased, and Justin grinned back down at her.


	3. Chapter 3

Quick note -- thanks to everyone who's been reading, reviewing, adding my stories as favorites, etc.! I know I've been slowing down a lot lately, thanks to problems at work and home, but seeing those coming in reminds me that I need to get back to his for all of you, and makes me feel better. Really, thanks!

And now, back to our story....

* * *

"Oh... oh... oh my, oh...." Alex looked around the room, then giggled. _"Feng shui? _Really? You have no idea how much I love you, that I am not teasing you about this right now. I mean, it's like, oriental interior decorating. Which makes you an interior decorator...."

Justin rolled his eyes. "No. Not like that. It's a form of earth magic -- understanding the flow of energy and how --" He stopped and smiled a little then, looking at Alex's expression. "You're just yanking my chain, aren't you?"

They'd just woken up, and were still in bed, lying face-to-face, Justin's arm draped over Alex. He pulled her closer, his nose nestling in her hair, and breathed in the scent of it, then moved to kiss her gingerly on the cheek.

"Of course. You have so many of them. And they're so... yankable." She stretched a little, then turned her head and returned the kiss, kissing his cheek just above the jawline. "Anyway, though, I ought to be going." She didn't get up, though, as Justin's arm was still around her.

He smiled up at her, tightened his arm. "Maybe I don't want you to go," he said, then lifted his head up and kissed Alex on the mouth, taking his time, pulling her lips between his.

His tongue began to touch her lips, and then Alex giggled and pulled back a little, to speak. "Well, I don't really _want_ to go either. But it's ten already. My double can't fool mom and dad all day."

Justin made a heavy, long sigh, tightened his arm around Alex for a moment, then removed it. "Yeah. And I really ought to do my homework anyway."

"Wait -- you didn't do your homework for Monday yet?" Alex blinked at her brother in surprise.

"No -- I was going to Friday night, but then that movie you wanted to see was on, so we went to that instead, remember?"

Suddenly, Alex threw her arms around Justin, almost pouncing on him on the narrow bed. "You put off homework to make me happy! You really do love me!" Alex beamed at Justin, and laughter won out over the annoyance over her ribbing him again.

Then the laughter stopped, and he stroked her hair, looked up into her soft brown eyes. "Yes. I love you, Alex. More than anything." Pulling her face down to his, Justin kissed his sister again, and she clung to him, then nestled into the crook of his arm when they broke the kiss.

"I can stay a few more minutes...."

*

"Oh, Alex, you're back already? That was fast." Their father, Jerry, was sitting on a stool at the kitchen island, the Sunday paper spread out before him.

"Oh, yeah -- it didn't take long," Alex answered, keeping her tone nonchalant even as her brain was in overdrive. _Where's my double? Did she get up and go out somewhere? Where?_

"So," he went on, "did you bring back any change?"

Okay, _that_ question she could answer, at least. "No. Do I ever?"

Her father sighed and rolled his eyes. "No. But I keep hoping. Well, I hope you got some nice clothes at least." He looked back down at the paper, and Alex nodded to herself.

_Clothes. Yeah, that sounds like me. Hope my double at least has good taste. Of course, she should, since she's me. _"I'm gonna go visit Harper," she said aloud, then knew she'd made a mistake when her dad quickly looked back up.

"What? You were just clothes shopping with her. Why do you need to go visit now?"

"Daaaad -- that was shopping. This is hanging out. I know you don't really understand the difference, since you're a guy, but it's really completely different. There are things we can't talk about out in public, like what guys we like, and...."

"Okay, go. Your mom wants to have dinner early, though, so be back by five."

_Success. _Alex smiled and waved as she slipped out the door. "Okay!"

With the door shut safely behind her, Alex ran to the stairs and then down them, taking them two at a time, wondering how this could have happened. Her duplicates were getting better, sure, but they'd never done anything like this before. _I should call Justin,_ she thought, biting her lip a little. _He'd know what to do. But he's got that homework to do, and he didn't do it yet because of me. I can clean up my own mess this time. I just need to find the duplicate and get rid of it. _

She frowned a little, thinking about that. It would be with Harper. In some ways, that was less of a problem, since Harper knew she was a wizard -- but there were other problems. Harper didn't know anything about her and Justin being together, and she was pretty sure Harper wouldn't understand or like _that_ at all. _So, get my duplicate away from Harper, get rid of it, then pretend it was me all along. Easy enough._

*

Justin thought about the day ahead of him as he showered, scrubbing carefully behind his ears. That was the kind of thing that Alex made fun of him for, but now, thinking about it just brought a smile to his face. _She loves me, no matter what face she puts on it. And that's what really matters._ He started to hum a snatch of a song he'd been writing, not even really conscious that he was doing that as he thought.

_Okay. First things first, finish up the homework so I have that out of the way. _He'd lied a little to Alex -- he hadn't done it before their 'date' on Friday, but he could never bring himself to sleep in until noon the way Alex could, so when he'd woken up in the morning, he'd gotten up and worked on it -- very, very quietly, so she wouldn't wake up.

_That was actually kind of fun, tiptoeing around so I wouldn't wake her up. Like when I used to sneak into her room and play pranks on her. And she's so cute when she's asleep._ Indeed, he'd spent half the time he was awake just watching her with a silly smile on his face. Still, in the two hours he'd been up before crawling back in with her, he'd gotten a good chunk of his homework done, and another hour or so ought to finish it up.

Turning off the shower, he reached for his towel, started to dry off there in the shower stall. Even with Alex's reassurances that he was hot, he was still body-shy, so he'd dry off and dress in the closed shower stall, not able to bring himself to parade back and forth in front of the other guys on the floor in just a towel. And speaking of clothes -- he needed to do laundry. And his stash of quarters was about empty.

He smiled then, thinking. _Well, I can always go visit the folks and do my laundry there. And maybe Alex can come down to "help her big brother". Yeah...._

*

"Hi, dad -- I'm back."

Jerry Russo looked up and frowned at his daughter, who was closing the door -- and carrying shopping bags. "I thought you'd gone to visit Harper?"

She turned to look at him, brushed a strand of hair out of her face, picked up the bag she'd set down to close the door, and made her 'what?' face. "Yeah -- we visited and shopped. Like I said we were going to."

"But -- you said -- I -- oh, never mind." He waved a hand and heaved a sigh. _Women. And teenagers. Can't get a straight answer out of either one, so I don't know why I bother trying. Especially with Alex. _"I'm reading my paper," he said aloud, saying it like a mantra. "It keeps me calm."

She started up the stairs, and then Jerry remembered something he'd meant to tell her. "Oh, Alex -- Justin's here, doing laundry. He's down in the garage if you want to say hi while he's here."

No answer came back, but Jerry ignored that. _Probably doesn't want to admit to missing her brother. Those two...._

*

Alex sighed as she went into the fifth store she'd thought of trying. _I should have asked dad when we'd left, _she thought, ignoring the fact that that probably would have tipped him off that something was strange. _Harper and... and not-me are probably halfway down our list of stores. Hmm... maybe I should go to the last one we'd go to, then work my way up the list. Yeah... that ought to do it._


	4. Chapter 4

Justin opened his laundry bag and smiled. _Pre-sorting my dirty clothes saves a lot of time._ Two dividers separated it into three sections: darks, lights, and underwear. _Lights first. Let's see... cold water, large load, long cycle...._

"Hey, bro." Justin smiled at Alex's voice, but made sure to drop the smile before turning his head, just in case she wasn't alone.

"Hey yourself," he replied, letting the smile come back as he saw that she was indeed alone. His eyes looked his little sister up and down, taking in her outfit. It was a new one, and fit her well. Everything was covered up, but Justin could easily imagine her body under it -- and he did.

She gave him a curious look. "You okay? You're looking at me kind of funny."

"What? I'm... just glad to see you."

"Oh, is that it?" She came down the short stairs, walked over by Justin, looked at his duffel. "Wow... pre-sorted. Is there no end to your geekiness?"

"It saves time. And...." He stopped, smiled, reached and took Alex's hand and squeezed it. "You know what? I love you even when you're teasing me."

Alex pulled her hand back and gave him a look. "That's why I tease you. Yeah -- no. I tease you because you're a dork, Justin."

Still smiling, Justin took a step forward, then put his hands on the washing machine, framing Alex in between his arms. "You don't have to keep up the act -- it's just us."

"What?" Alex looked up at him, startled. "Justin, I don't think --"

"Shh. You don't have to think. Rule two, remember."

"Rule two? Wha --"

And then Justin moved forward again, putting his body against Alex's, wrapping his arms around her, and kissed her deeply, his hand sliding up to cradle the back of her head.

Alex froze a moment, then pulled away from him, bringing her arms up and pushing him away. Startled, Justin let go -- and then yelped as Alex slapped him hard on his left cheek. He put his hand to it. "Oww... what did you --" He stopped, looking at Alex, who was backed against the wall, looking warily at him.

"What the hell was that!" she snapped out. "What do you think you're doing?!"

"I... I...." Justin stopped a moment, trying to think. _Something's wrong. And knowing Alex, magic is involved. Okay. She's not going to hold still for me to cast a spell on her right now. So... yeah._

"I'm sorry," he said out loud. "I -- I... don't tell mom and dad, please? I think I must've made a mistake with a spell or something."

"Really?" Alex seemed to relax a little, then took a step closer. "You made a mistake? You realize I'm going to milk this for all the blackmail value I can."

"I know," Justin said, shrugging. "But better that than dad doing his, 'I thought you knew better than this, Justin, you're the good one, I expect these things from Alex' speech."

"I don't know...." Alex tapped her chin and smiled. "I kind of like hearing that speech."

Justin rolled his eyes. "Yeah, you would. Anyway... you will help me, right?"

"Sure -- I mean, you always help me. But expect a ton of teasing. And -- no more kissing, okay?"

"Okay," Justin answered, nodding. _Step one done -- make sure she doesn't tell the parents. And if she's trying to 'help' me, that'll let me get a chance to find out what's going on and find the proper spell to fix it._ _And besides... when I fix whatever spell she did that went wrong, she should be really appreciative._

*

Coming out of the last store, Alex was making an angry frown, bordering on a scowl. "Damn!" she said aloud, then shut her mouth so hard her teeth clicked. _All right. Calm down. You're a wizard -- saying curses can be really, really bad._ She stopped for a moment, turning away from the foot traffic going by to look in the store window -- more more through it, as she wasn't really looking at anything inside.

A few deep breaths didn't really help, but she started moving again anyway after them. "All right," she muttered to herself. "So you didn't find Harper and the duplicate. Where else would they go?"

_Home, _she answered herself. _Or to get something to eat._ She decided to check the latter possibility first, since once she'd gone home, finding another excuse to go back out would be harder.

*

Justin sat in the lair, looking through spellbooks. He knew the last load had probably finished in the dryer, and he should go downstairs and take it out and fold it, before anything had a chance to wrinkle, but he told himself that once he did that, he'd have no reason to be 'killing time' up here. And right now was the ideal time to look, while his dad was watching football.

_It's not a simple emotion spell... she doesn't even seem to remember that we were ever together. That's some serious kind of mind-affecting magic. Even Alex would be hard-pressed to do that by accident...._

He bit his lip then, frowning. Did that mean someone had done it to her? But why would anyone remove those memories? They'd have to know that she _had_ those memories to remove them... unless it was some sort of memory reset spell. Had she forgotten the whole last... what was it now, six months?

_Almost. Wow. I don't think I've ever had a girlfriend for that long before. And I ought to get her something to celebrate it being six months.... Stop. This isn't getting anywhere._ He returned to flipping through the index, darting forward in the book to read descriptions, returning to the index after yet another didn't seem to match.

_I'll have to ask her about something besides us from the last six months. But wait... she knew I was in college. So she hasn't lost the whole six months. Hmm...._

The door opened, and Justin looked up quickly, then sighed a little in relief as it was only Max. "Hey... watcha doin' in here?"

"Just studying up some," Justin replied, flipping the book's pages at random. "Curses and their effects."

"Yeah..." Max nodded sagely, still walking over slowly. "Dad had me reading about those a few weeks ago. What are you looking for?"

"Memory curses -- to make people forget things," Justin replied automatically, then mentally cringed, wondering what Max would come up with out of that.

"Memory curses, memory curses... oh, yeah! I remember now!"

"What?" Justin looked up at Max, startled a little. "What do you remember?"

"This!" Max took three quick strides to the fireplace, lifted a trophy, then picked up something from behind it. "That's where I left my sandwich!"

_Of course. I should've known._ "You're not going to --" Justin cut off, as his younger brother had already taken a bite and was chewing. "Wow, you're disgusting," he said instead, shaking his head and looking back down at the book, pretending to focus his attention on it in hopes Max would go away.

But pretending was all he was doing -- Justin was much too busy thinking to actually pay attention to the page in front of him. _Someone could have used a spell to make her forget about her boyfriend, without knowing it was me. But who would do that? TJ, maybe -- or that kid we foiled at WizTech. What was his name...._

"Hey." A hand waved in front of Justin's face, and he snapped his head up, ready to yell at Max -- but it wasn't Max. It was Alex, standing there smiling at him. "Okay, I'm going to have to take this away from you," she said, taking the book from his hands and closing it, then tossing it over onto the couch. "You don't need to spend all day studying at college, then come over here and study more. Have some fun."

"Yeah," Max put in. "We should get the paintball guns out, and have a shootout on the terrace!"

"Yeah, you should totally do that." Alex nodded at Justin, giving him a look -- it seemed to him to be a _yes, do what I'm telling you_ look, or possibly a _come on, take my hint_ one. Although, he thought, it just might be a _look at my eyes, aren't they pretty?_

"Okay, okay. Come on Max -- let's go find the paintball guns." Closing the book he'd been looking at, Justin stood and started to go around the table to get to the door, then turned to look back at Alex. "Are you coming?"

"Oh, no -- you guys go have your fun. Besides, I don't want to get paint on my new outfit."

Justin frowned at Alex then, realizing that she wasn't in the same clothes he'd last seen her in. _Why'd she change clothes?_ he wondered, but Max was pulling on his arm, saying, "Quit stalling -- it's time for you to get pwned, Justin!"

*

As soon as the boys left the room, Alex was looking at the books Justin had out. _Curses and their Removal? One Hundred and One Curses to Try on Your Friends? What the heck?_

She shook her head. Justin had the strangest reading tastes, but she didn't have time to worry about that right now. She needed to find something about duplicates, so she headed for the big spellbook. Justin would scoff at that, of course, saying it was much too basic, and the specialized books were better -- but at least it had all kinds of spells, so she wouldn't spend twenty minutes just finding the right book.

Even as she set to trying to find a spell to take care of her wayward duplicate, however, Alex wondered where that duplicate might be....


	5. Chapter 5

"Hey! No aiming for the face!"

"More pew-pew, less Q-Q," Max laughed. He ducked behind a potted plant just in time to avoid Justin's shot, leaving a yellow splatter against the bricks.

"You're the one who's going to be Q-Qing," Justin growled, turning over a lounge chair to get some cover, all the while watching for Max to move out of cover. This was how their paintball games usually ended up -- shootout style, until one or the other of them gave up and called it over. Or ran out of ammo, which was more likely now, since Max had hit puberty and the hormone floods had upped his competitiveness about three thousand percent.

Seconds passed. _Don't move, Justin. Wait him out. Remember Sun Tzu. Let him make the wrong move._ He breathed out slowly, trying to untense. A chuckle came from behind the plant, and Justin scowled. _Dammit. He knows I'm not good at waiting. Maybe I should just go ahead -- no. That's what he's expecting. Wait. Wait._

Of course, he could have used a simple spell to curve his shots, hit Max around the plant. He could even enchant the pellet, make it home on Max automatically. But that would be cheating. Still... it would be nice to win this one....

Behind the plant, Max grinned. Give Justin a few seconds without shooting, and he'd get busy thinking instead of watching. He ought to be reaching that point about.... now!

His back against the wall, Max kicked the planter hard. Reacting to the motion, Justin fired at it, then immediately ducked as he realized his mistake. Max was already out and shooting, pulling the trigger repeatedly, eager to get at least one hit on his older brother.

Justin moved, grabbing the lounge chair by the legs and rolling it up on top of him, using it as a shield as he scrambled to his feet. Then he tossed it forward, where it hit Max, blocking him both from shooting and from seeing with way Justin was going.

It was Justin's turn to laugh, but he didn't, instead staying silent as he circled. As he expected, Max grabbed chair, tried to use it as a shield, peeking through the slats as he turned it about, looking for Justin.

The smart thing to do would have been to back it into the corner there and keep using it as a shield, knowing Justin couldn't be behind him. But, although he'd gotten better, smart still wasn't Max's forte. Instead, he tried to turn Justin's trick back against him, throwing the chair out. He twisted it sideways first, Justin noted with approval, trying to cover a wider area.

Not that it helped. Justin had moved into the corner, and was nowhere near where Max was throwing the chair. Max was wide open now, though, and Justin opened up, hitting him with three shots before the chair bounced to a halt. They were all good shots, too, on the torso.

"Gotcha!" he called out, and Max whirled to the sound of his voice, readying to shoot. Then the fact that he'd been hit sunk in, and he lowered his gun, nodded slowly.

"Yeah, you got me. Good game, bro." He stuck out his hand to shake, and Justin walked forward, smiling, shifting his gun to his left hand to stick his right out.

That's when Max shot him, point-blank in the chest, left-handed but close enough that it didn't make a difference. Practically howling with laughter, he jumped past Justin, yanked open the sliding glass door, and ducked inside, still running.

"You -- you --" Justin couldn't come up with something to yell that was both harsh enough and wouldn't have Mom talking to him about his language, so he simply shook his head hard and slammed the table with his fist, then muttered, "Little bastard."

Then he chuckled himself, shaking his head less violently. It _was_ a good fake-out. And while he'd stuck Justin with the job of clean-up, that was no big deal, since Justin was allowed to use magic as he wished now. Pulling out his wand, he started moving the furniture back into place.

"Well, now you've got that shirt to add to the laundry pile. And it's not pre-sorted. Whatever will you do?" Justin looked over at Alex, noted the mocking smile.

"Oh, I'll manage," he replied dryly. "Somehow." He looked his little sister up and down, frowned a little. "How many outfits are you planning on going through today?"

"As many as it takes," she answered with a shrug, prompting Justin to wonder _As it takes for what?_, but he didn't ask the question aloud. She did a pirouette, then, causing her skirt to billow up slightly, and smiled at him. "Why? Do you like it?"

"I could answer that question, but you might hit me again."

"Hit you?" Alex frowned and blinked. "Why would I hit you?" She looked up at him, eyes wide, and Justin swallowed. He could smell her, this close, a scent of mixed rose and musk, and he wondered if she'd put on a different perfume as well.

"You hit me earlier. Don't you remember?"

"Earlier? Like, earlier today?" She tilted her head to the side in obvious disbelief.

"Yessss...." Justin nodded slowly, raising an eyebrow at Alex.

"I'm sure I would remember if I hit you, Justin. Besides, what would I hit you for?"

*

_There should be a clue around here somewhere about what Justin was doing that's got him messed up._ Alex's duplicate looked around his dorm room, moved to his desk, looked at the book that was open there. _Matter, Energy, and Time_ was the title, and she opened it, riffled the pages to see if anything would fall out. When nothing did, she set it back down, moved on to the papers there.

_Homework._ _Nothing to be learned here. _"Okay, enough of the old-fashioned detective stuff. Let's try this my way." Pulling out her wand, Alex made a sweeping motion, pulled it into a circle. _"My brother wants me to kiss, show the spell he missed."_

Nothing happened. _Great. Looks like I get to snoop the old-fashioned way. Good thing I left a duplicate behind, so nobody'll notice if I'm gone for a while. _She set to going through Justin's things, pulling out his desk drawer to start with.

*

"Umm... I tried to kiss you?"

Alex looked up at her older brother, tilted her head to the side, and smiled slightly. "No."

"No? You don't remember it?" Justin frowned, his eyebrows quirking to the side a bit as he gave her a half-confused, half-"what the hell?" expression.

"No... I don't think I'd hit you for that." She took a final step forward then, moving up on tiptoe as she did, pressing her body against her brother as she brought her lips against his, opening them slightly.

Her body pushed Justin back, and his arms went around her, for balance at first, then for other reasons as he started to return the kiss. Alex was warm and soft in his arms, her lips moist and hot. A moment's relief flooded through Justin as he thought that it was all okay, that whatever she'd done had worn off, and she was back with him again...

And then she pulled away. He opened his eyes, blinked twice, found himself looking down into Alex's sparkling and mischievous brown orbs. She had one of her smiles on, and Justin knew just from her eyes that it was her "now I've got you" smile, without even having to see her whole face.

"That was nice," Alex said. "But we can't do any more here." She nodded her head to the side, toward the sliding glass door, thankfully covered by curtains inside. "We'll need to go somewhere else...."

*

Back in the Lair, the original Alex wasn't having any more luck. Flipping through yet another book, she started to let out a growl of frustration, then stifled it as she heard the door opening. _"Books know your spaces, get back in your places,"_ she said quickly, and the books flew through the air, slotting themselves into the shelves, the last one settling into place just as her dad came around the corner.

"Alex... have you seen Justin? I wanted to talk to him before he goes."

"I think he's out on the patio, doing paintball with Max."

"Paintball?" Jerry turned, getting an angry look as he did, then stopped himself. "Right. Justin can clean it up. And he will. Because he's a good boy, and won't get too involved in beating Max and...."

He stopped again, shaking his head. "I'd better go check on them," he said, stalking out of the room.

_Well, I'd better beat him down and warn Justin. _Alex took out her wand, waved it, turned it in a tightening circle, closing her eyes as she did -- the sudden change always made her a little dizzy if her eyes were open.


	6. Chapter 6

Alex opened her eyes and looked about the patio, then grimaced. _Of course._ Justin and Max were nowhere in sight, and there were paintball splatters everywhere. The lawn chairs were all back in place, though, which was strange -- usually they got knocked around when the boys went at it out here.

Taking out her wand, Alex frowned and spun it, thinking, then nodded. _"Clean it up, wash it, scrub it down, oh no,"_ she said, waving her wand just the right way, then smiled as the paint peeled itself off the walls, furniture, and floor, then gathered together and threw itself into the trash can.

_Okay, now, where would Justin go?_ Alex tapped herself on the head and smiled then. _Back down to finish his laundry, of course._ _Well, I'll just pop right down there..._

Closing her eyes, Alex disappeared just before Jerry pulled back the curtain to look out.

*

"Come on, Justin, it's okay -- nobody's coming down here." Alex pulled his hand up onto her breast, then arched her neck up, trying to kiss him.

Justin shifted his hand down and glanced toward the stairs, frowning as he wondered how things had gotten switched around like this. Not that he wasn't glad that whatever spell had been on Alex seemed to have worn off, but he still wasn't sure what had happened, and -- "Oh!"

Her hand was down his pants, and Justin squirmed, but he didn't squirm the right way, and her hand was right around him, and then she was moving it. "Oh," he was saying again, and then his hand was on the back of Alex's neck, pulling her face to his, and he kissed her hard, pushing his tongue into her mouth....

"Surprise!" Alex called out as she appeared, opening her eyes just in time to see Justin try to jump up and turn at the same time -- with another Alex's hand down his pants.

"Alex!? What --"

"Hey! You, you, you -- me! Get your hand off of him!" Alex moved forward and grabbed the duplicate by the arm, pulled up, then suddenly realized just what the duplicate's hand was on as Justin let out a cry.

Both Alexes looked on in horror for a moment as Justin writhed on the floor, and then turned their heads toward the stairs in unison as they heard footsteps coming down quickly.

"You -- hide behind the washer. _Now!"_ Alex pointed, and her double nodded, then quickly moved to squeeze herself back there. _Well, at least she's got the sense to do what I tell her. What she tells herself?_

"What is going on down here?" Their mother stood at the top of the stairs, leaning on the railing and looking down at them. "Justin, are you okay?"

"We were horsing around, and I um, kind of, uh, kicked him there...."

It was the best Alex could come up with. _But it fits. And it definitely fits the blush I'm feeling coming up,_ she thought.

"Alex! How could you do that to your brother!" Theresa continued down the stairs as she spoke, glaring at her daughter.

"I didn't _mean _to! It was an accident!" Alex brought her hands up in an almost pleading way, and she blinked as if trying to hold back tears.

Theresa stared at Alex for a moment, narrowing her eyes as she tried to judge whether her daughter was being sincere or -- or, well, being Alex. Then, however, Justin started to get up off the floor, groaning a bit. "It's okay -- I'll be okay," he said. "And it was an accident."

Instantly, both the women moved to Justin, putting hands on his arms to help him up. "Oh, son -- are you sure you're okay?"

"Yes," he answered. "It hurts, but I'll be fine. I... aaa_aaaaa_hhh," he let out suddenly, starting to curl back up. Alex and Theresa both moved closer again.

"Slowly," Theresa said. "Stand up slowly. Alex -- get your brother up to his room. You may use magic for it. I'm going to get him an icepack and some aspirin." She turned away from the two of them, but turned back almost immediately and hugged Justin carefully. "My poor baby -- don't you worry, Mommy's going to take care of you." Then she turned away again and went up the stairs and out of the room.

Alex watched for a few moments as their mother left, waited a couple more seconds. "You!" she said said, moving over toward the washing machine, where her double was hiding. "Get out here!"

* * *

Yeah, I know -- really short chapter. I'm trying to get back into the swing of writing, though, after having stopped so long over the holiday season. More to come soon!


	7. Chapter 7

Alex's double peeked out from behind the washing machine, then stood up slowly. Her eyes flicked back and forth between Alex and Justin, and she wore a tight-lipped, wary expression. She moved out into the room, not speaking. As she moved, Alex looked her up and down, frowning.

The double was the first to speak. "You're not hurt bad, are you?" she asked, biting her lip and looking at Justin.

"I don't know -- it hurts a lot. I guess we'll have to see --" he started, but Alex interrupted.

"Okay, nice that you care and all, but -- you're just my double. I'll take care of things with Justin. But first, we need to take care of things with you." She reached to pull out her wand, and the double made a face, but nodded.

_"Rattle and hum, put 'em back together-um,"_ Alex intoned, giving her wand the requisite flick. The double blurred and seemed to slide across the floor into Alex -- but the clothes she had been wearing dropped to the floor.

Alex shook her head and looked at the pile of clothes, puzzled. "That's never happened before... what's up with that?" She looked to Justin for an answer.

Shifting uncomfortably, Justin said, "How about I tell you _after_ you get me up to my room and I get that ice pack?"

"Oh! Right! Sorry...." Taking Justin's hand, Alex waved her wand, but Justin reached out to grab her wrist, stopping her before she could transport them.

"The clothes -- put them in the dirties, so nobody notices."

"Right," Alex said again, moving quickly to pick them up and toss them into the hamper by the washing machine. Then she giggled. "Well, well -- you helping me with how to cover something up. Who would've expected that?"

Justin's only answer was to roll his eyes and grimace. "Yeah. Very odd. Now, upstairs...?"

"Okay, okay, I'm getting there." Once again taking Justin's hand, Alex completed the spell this time, and the two of them were upstairs in his room. Theresa was already there, and looked at her two eldest children with a mixture of annoyance and worry.

"What took you two so long? I was going to go back down and check on you in a few more seconds."

"I wanted to check and see how bad Justin was hurt," Alex covered quickly, "but he wouldn't let me."

"And a good thing!" Theresa said, scowling at Alex. "That's not something you need to be doing."

Alex rolled her eyes in answer. "Mom, _please._ Like I _want _to see that. I just wanted to make sure he wasn't bleeding or anything."

Their mother's scowl didn't diminish in the least, however, as she stared at Alex for a few seconds. Finally, she turned to Justin, her scowl dropping as she did. "You take what I've brought you and -- check yourself," she said, nodding toward the water, tylenol, icepack, and hand mirror on Justin's bedside table. "I'll be back in a few minutes to see if you need anything." Moving toward the door, she took Alex by her upper arm and pulled her along.

*

Meanwhile, back in Justin's dorm room, Alex's first double was sighing. "Nothing," she said out loud. "This doesn't make any sense at all. I can't believe Justin would be experimenting with magic and not keeping any notes about it -- that's not like him." She paused, then absently spun a pencil on Justin's desk. "Unless it was a new experiment -- or something secret. What could he be doing that he wouldn't want anyone to find out about...?"

She turned and looked around the tiny dorm room. It was tiny -- perhaps twelve feet by ten feet -- with his desk, desk chair, dresser, bed, and a mini-fridge packed into it. Those had come with the room, and were typical institutional furniture: serviceable, but completely unstylish. Justin and Alex had added posters -- a couple of Tears of Blood, plus a couple of ones of girls in bikinis that Alex had practically had to force Justin to put up. She smiled, remembering _that_ conversation.

_"Look. You're a guy, with a room nobody else can tell you what to do with for the first time in your life. If you _don't_ have pictures of girls up, people are going to think you're gay, or a complete and total nerd._"

The smile suddenly turned to a frown. _Wait... there's something else. That's not how that argument ended. What happened next?_

Picking the pencil she'd been playing with up, Alex tapped it against her teeth, scowling as she thought hard. She'd won the argument, she knew -- the posters were proof of that. But there was something else that had happened... something important.

Laying the pencil back down, she got up and moved around, looking at the room from different angles, hoping something would stir her memory. Nothing. "Okay. So let's say Justin has a secret. Where would he hide it?" She looked at the computer on his desk, but shook her head. No -- if it was there, she wasn't going to find it, not without help. And she could waste a lot of time looking. She'd already looked under his bed -- not that she'd found anything there, or expected to. Justin was too much of a neat freak to just shove things under his bed.

She moved to the closet, opened it, looked it up and down. Clothes hanging, shoes on the bottom, a few boxes on the top shelf -- wait. One of those was a shoebox. If his shoes are at the bottom, why would he need a shoebox up there?

Alex stood up on tiptoe, but couldn't quite reach it. _Damn shelves built for tall people._ _I could get the chair,_ she thought, but frowned even as she was thinking it, looking at Justin's wheeled desk chair. _Or..._ She reached into her pocket and took out her wand, gave it a flick to loosen her wrist up.

"Shelf is too high, it makes me sigh, get that box down so I don't feel like a clown." The box appeared in Alex's hands, and she smiled, then put it half under one arm while she tucked the wand away again. With that done, she opened the box -- then stared in shock at the contents.


	8. Chapter 8

Alex's double quickly moved to the desk and set the box down, unconscious of the fact that her hands were shaking slightly as she did. _What the hell? What has Justin gotten into?_

The first thing that had caught her attention were two pairs of handcuffs. Those really weren't anything she expected _Justin_ to have. Next after that had been the books -- not that Justin having books was unexpected, but she'd expect science books, or something geeky like his Dungeons & Gargoyles books -- not _365 Sex Positions: A New Way Every Day_. And especially not something titled _Inbreeding, Incest, and the Incest Taboo._

That was shocking enough, but it wasn't what had Alex's double shaking. She dipped her hand into the box and pulled out the pictures, then started to go through them, one by one. They were pictures of her, and some of Justin. It was obvious that they'd been playing around with the camera together, and were both mostly nude, and quickly progressed to being fully nude. In some of the pictures, it was obvious that _she_ was the one holding the camera, taking the picture.

And she didn't remember any of it.

_What the hell? Did he make a duplicate of me? Did he wipe my memory?_ She sat down hard in Justin's chair, dropping the pictures onto the desk. A few of them went over the edge, falling down onto the floor, but she ignored them, instead taking the box in her hands again, pulling it into her lap.

The handcuffs and the books came out, were set on the desk. And there was more. Little packets of some kind of lubricant, with labels like "Sexy Strawberry" and "Passionate Peach". Condoms. A pair of dice, one marked with body parts, the other with actions -- fondle, kiss, caress, and so on.

And then, laying in the bottom, another book. No. It was bound in leather, had a catch and a loop to hold a pen. A journal. The double swallowed hard, then opened Justin's journal to the first page, and began to read.

*

"Alex", Theresa Russo said quietly to her daughter, "What do you think you're doing? Your brother's a grown man, and you're... you're almost a grown woman. It's not appropriate for you to be talking about checking him like that!"

"Mom... I'm just worried about him, okay? Sorry... you're right, I shouldn't. I just... I just feel like it's my fault." Alex drooped her head and sighed to gain time, hoping their mom wouldn't keep freaking about this. The last thing she and Justin needed was their mom having any sort of suspicions about their relationship.

_Gotta get her off-track. Be upset. Bring out the mommy in her._ "I... we used to fight all the time, before he left, and I think he still doesn't trust me, and...." Alex stopped, pretended to stifle a fake sob, then turned away, wiping at her eyes, shutting them hard while her back was to her mom to help force tears.

"Oh, Alex -- it's okay, honey. I'm sure he doesn't blame you. Accidents happen." Theresa gently turned Alex back toward her, pulled her daughter's head to her shoulder and wrapped arms around her, leaning her own head down onto her daughter's. "Don't you worry. Everything's going to be fine."

"Okay," Alex got out, in a fake-small voice that was helped immensely by the pressure her mom was gripping her with. _I think she's been going to the gym a little _too _much._ She waited patiently a few seconds, dropping off her fake crying fit gradually, then gently pushing away.

"I... I'm okay now," she said then. "I'll go downstairs and make some of that tea Justin likes. Okay?"

"Good," Theresa answered, smiling at Alex now. "You do that. I'll check on your brother."

*

_I don't know what I'm doing. Everything I read says this is wrong. Most people agree that what I'm doing is wrong, immoral, and disgusting._

_But it doesn't feel that way. I love her like I've always loved her -- but with more added now. All I can do is do my best not to hurt her, and to take care of her, and to protect her._

_She seems to want this as much as I do -- more, sometimes. And I know that I never could say no to her on anything she really wanted._

Alex's duplicate bit her lip, frowned, and shook her head. _Have I been thrown into some kind of mirror universe?_ she wondered. _And if this is evil mirror-Justin, shouldn't he have a goatee?_ She smiled a little at that, and tried to picture Justin with chin-fuzz. Frowning more, Alex's duplicate took a deep breath, then let it out slowly. He was dorkily cute, she had to admit -- but she couldn't dredge up any attraction to him.

_But he wrote there that I seem to want this as much as he does. And the pictures...._

The duplicate shook her head quickly, clearing it, then glanced at the clock. _Shit! I've been reading this for an hour!_ Hurriedly, she began to put everything back into the box, trying to make sure she had the arrangement the same as it had been before. "... and handcuffs on top," she muttered to herself, putting them into place, then taking the box over to the closet. A quick levitation spell put it back into place, and duplicate-Alex took a deep breath, then looked around the room, making sure everything was the way it had been before.

*

"He's okay?"

"Yes, he's going to be just fine. He's just going to sit there for a little bit." Alex's mom moved into the kitchen area as she spoke, opening a cupboard and reaching in. She brought out a bag of flour, set it on the counter, then opened another. "I see you put the tea on. I think I'm going to make some cookies. Those always made Justin feel better when he was little."

Alex nodded. "I'll go downstairs and finish up his laundry for him. That way he doesn't have to do it."

Theresa Russo smiled at her daughter. "That's very thoughtful of you, Alex. You're really starting to grow up."

"Yeah, well -- don't expect me to grow up much more. All the fun's in being a kid," Alex replied with a smile as she headed for the door.

*

With a corona of light, Alex's duplicate appeared in the Russo's basement/garage/laundry room. Looking around, she made a smug smile. _That was a good teleport, if I do say so myself. And I do. And just as I guessed, no one's here to see it._

Her eyes landed on Justin's laundry, and she frowned. _What the heck? I thought he'd be done with that by now. I could've kept looking...._ The thought was interrupted as she heard the door open and footsteps come down the stairs. _Oh, hell. I'm not ready to talk to him right now!_

"_I'm not ready for this scene, so let's make me be unseen,_" she chanted quickly, speaking just above a whisper. She waved her wand as she did, and stepped back as well, out of the center of the room, into a corner. _No use being invisible if I just stand out where he'll run right into me._

Her eyes widened with surprise, though, as it wasn't Justin who was on the stairs, but... her? _Oh... that must be the duplicate I made! What's it doing coming down here, though? Ah, well... doesn't matter._

The real Alex opened the dryer and began pulling out clothes and folding them. With a wave of her hand, Alex's duplicate released the invisibility spell, then stepped into the middle of the room and spoke. "Okay, duplicate... what's been going on while I've been gone?"


	9. Chapter 9

"What?" Alex turned at the unexpected voice, then just stared at her duplicate for a long five seconds. _There's another duplicate? And it called _me _duplicate?_

"All right," the duplicate said, rolling her eyes. "I know you duplicates aren't always smart, but I hope you can actually manage to answer a simple question. Has anything happened while I've been gone?"

"Uh, no, no, nothing's happened," Alex said, shaking her head. She shifted a little, turning to the side as she slowly started to reach for her wand.

"Well, I guess you're not needed any more, then," the duplicate said, and pulled out her own wand. Abandoning stealth, Alex pulled hers out as well, and the duplicate frowned, then asked, "What are you doing?"

"Wrapping this mess up!" Alex called out, then flicked her wand. "_Rattle and hum, put 'em back together-um!"_ A corona of light appeared around the duplicate, and she started to slide toward Alex - but then suddenly snapped back to where she'd been before.

"_What the hell!" _both Alexes called in unison, and then they both started talking, very, very fast.

"What did you try that for? _You're_ the duplicate, not me!"

"Oh no, I'm not - I'm the real Alex, and _you're _the duplicate!"

"Oh yeah - well, we'll see about that! _Rattle and hum, put 'em back together-um!_" Just as before, the spell seemed to start to work, then suddenly stopped, and both Alexes' jaws dropped.

"Wait… you can't do that!"

"Well, I just did! But why didn't it work?"

"Oh, well… maybe because _I'm not a duplicate!_" Alex's voice rose in volume as she said that, and the other Alex raised her hands in a 'quiet down!' gesture.

"Okay, okay - we need to calm down and hold this down."

"Calm down! Why should I -"

Taking three quick steps, one Alex moved to the other, grabbed her, and put a hand over the other Alex's mouth. "_Because_," she hissed, "if we don't quiet down, _someone_ is going to come down to see what's happening. And if they come down and find two of us down here, it doesn't matter which one of us is the real Alex, we're _both_ going to be in major trouble." She paused a moment, looking into Alex's - her own? - eyes, then went on. "So, are you ready to quiet down now?"

The restrained Alex answered with a quick, annoyed nod, and was released. "Okay," she said then. "I'll be calm. But we can't _both_ be the real Alex. And we definitely can't go on with two of us - what would we tell people, that you're my identical cousin? You'd have to be a TV executive to buy that."

The other Alex took a step back and chewed her lower lip for a moment, frowning and thinking, and then sighed. "Well, there's only one thing you - I - we?"

The first Alex put her hands together in a time-out T. "Okay, grammar is officially suspended until this thing is over with. What's your idea?"

"What do I always do when I'm in trouble? Let's go talk to Justin."

"Aww… he's so peaceful when he's asleep." Alex reached out and brushed Justin's hair lightly with her fingers, smiling down at him, while the other Alex gave her a look.

"Eww. Eww. And because just two aren't enough, eww. You have _got_ to be the duplicate, because I don't think I can stand the idea that the real me could be that sappy."

Alex looked up from Justin and smirked. "I used to feel that way too, but I outgrew it. That proves you're the duplicate."

"What - how - no it doesn't!"

"_Shhh!_ Remember, we're trying to be quiet so no one hears?"

"Right… right. Still, though -"

She was interrupted by a muffled "Hey," spoken by Justin into his pillow. "What are you -" he started, rolling over as he spoke, then cutting off suddenly as he saw the two Alexes. Justin blinked once, twice, a third time, looking back and forth between the two of them. Then he let out a long-suffering sigh.

"Okay. What's happened _now_?"

Both Alexes pouted at that. "You say that like I'm always making trouble!" one said, to which the other nodded agreement.

Quickly, Justin held up both hands. "Sorry. It's just been a long day. Why did you -" he started, again looking from one Alex to the other, then shook his head. "Okay, I need to know which one of you to talk to. Which one's the duplicate?"

"She is," they both said, each pointing at the other. The two Alexes glared at each other as Justin covered his face with his hand.

"Okay," Justin said in an exasperated tone. "So you're both duplicates. Where's the real Alex?"

"No, we're not -" they started at the same time, then traded annoyed glares again while Justin blinked.

"Don't tell me you both think you're the real Alex."

"Ooookay," one Alex said, "let's pretend I didn't tell you, and instead we played charades until you figured it out. Now… can you fix this?"

Without replying, Justin sat up on the bed, then looked at both Alexes again. "You were using the Edgebono utoosis spell?"

"Yes," both the Alexes said, then gave each other annoyed looks.

"And you've tried the counterspell already?"

"Of course," one said. "In fact, we _both_ tried it on each other. We can't both be the real one..."

Justin held up a hand, cutting Alex off. "You," he said, pointing to the Alex who had just been speaking. "When did you use the spell?"

"Last night, before I -"

"And when did you use it?" he asked, pointing to the other Alex.

"Today, when I -"

"All right," Justin interrupted. "You made a duplicate first, so you're the real Alex," he said, pointing to the first one who'd answered.

"I am _not_ a duplicate!" The other Alex took a step back and took out her wand. "You are _not_ just going to get rid of me!"

"Look," Justin said in a soothing voice, standing up, "I know you feel that way. And the fact that you've started to have real feelings is why the simple counterspell isn't working on you. But we can't have two Alexes. So you're going to have to accept it."

"No! You're not getting rid of me that easily!" She took another step back and pointed her wand at Justin. "I can beat you if I have to!"


	10. Chapter 10

Justin immediately pulled his wand as well, the real Alex doing likewise just a moment after. "Let's be calm here," Justin said, trying to keep his tone soothing, but not doing very well. "There's no reason for us to fight."

"The hell there isn't!" the duplicate Alex responded. "You're going to... to _erase_ me! If that's _not_ a reason to fight, I'd like to know what is!" She took another step back into the corner, eyes darting side-to-side, trying to watch both Justin and the real Alex.

"I don't want to hurt you, but I don't know what alternative we have," Justin said, not lowering his wand an inch. "We can't have two Alexes - Alexi? - whatever! It -"

"Why not?" the duplicate demanded. "I could leave here, go live somewhere else -"

"Where?" Justin held his left hand out, palm up as he asked. "You're only sixteen. You don't have a diploma. You can't get a job anywhere as Alex Russo - you'd need to get a fake ID or something like that. And then what kind of job are you going to get?"

"I don't know!" The duplicate waved both hands in a gesture of angry admission. "I... I... damn it, I don't want to die, Justin! You said it yourself - I have real emotions!" Tears came to her eyes as she spoke, and then she flung the wand down, turning away from the two of them.

The real Alex gave Justin a quick glare, then moved to the duplicate, put her arms around her. "It's okay... we're not going to get rid of you." She looked up at Justin, still holding onto her duplicate, and glared at him again. "Are we?" the real Alex asked, in tones which made it clear that there was only one acceptable answer.

"We... but... what are we..." Justin stopped then, sighed, and shook his head. "Okay. We'll _try_ to figure something else out -"

"No, we're _not _going to _try_!" Alex snapped at him. "What's that line from that movie you like? Something like 'Do it or don't, there is no try'?"

"'Do. Or do not. There is no try,'" Justin corrected automatically. "But... that's a movie, Alex. It's not real life. It's -" Suddenly, Justin stopped, his eyes opening wide. "Shit... I hear Mom on the stairs. Hide, quick... both of you!"

The duplicate Alex pulled out her wand, but before she could do anything with it, the real Alex grabbed her forearm and started pulling her toward the closet. As he pulled her duplicate along, Alex hissed out "She might hear the pop if we teleport. In the closet."

As Theresa Russo opened the door, the closet door swung _almost_ shut - Alex left it open a crack, both to see out, and to keep from making any noise. Justin had grabbed a book and was holding it as if he'd been reading it. "Hey, mom," he said, turning to look at her and setting the book down as he did.

"Are you feeling any better?" Theresa asked.

"Yeah," Justin said, "a lot better." He swung his feet off the bed, then stood up. "I ought to be getting back to the dorm, though. I need to study for the chem midterm."

"You're sure you're better? You're not just saying you are to get out of here?"

"Mom…" Justin said with a hurt expression, "who do you think I am? Alex?"

In the closet, duplicate-Alex opened her mouth to protest, but real-Alex put a hand over her mouth, shaking her head. Unaware of the byplay, Theresa laughed. "You're right - I don't know what I'm thinking. I'm just not used to having the good child here any more." She shook her head, then went on. "I can't believe it's been five months since you moved out."

Moving a little closer, Theresa looked up at Justin. "You've grown a little since you left. And you look thinner. Have you been eating right? Because you know, you're not that far. You could always come over here to get a sandwich."

"Mom, I'm eating just fine. I'm just… getting more exercise than I used to." This time, it was duplicate-Alex who had to cover the real Alex's mouth as she fought a sudden fit of giggles.

"Well… stay for dinner. You'll study better on a full stomach. And besides," Theresa continued, dropping her voice and leaning in closer to Justin, "I haven't gotten used to cooking for just the four of us yet - so your father keeps eating the extra. That, or Max gets up in the middle of the night to eat the leftovers and makes a mess. So you'd be doing me a favor." She paused a moment, then said, "I'll make your favorite."

Justin closed his eyes, took a breath, then let it out, saying "All right," as he did.

"Good!" Theresa made a little excited jump, then headed back toward the door. "I'll go get it started right away, so I won't keep you from your studies as long." With that, Theresa left.

Justin waited for a three-count, then closed the door, moved over to his closet, opened it. "Okay. You can come out Alex and… Alex." The two of them came out into the room, and real-Alex moved up against Justin and hugged him.

"I'm glad you're staying for dinner."

"Thanks." Justin gave Alex a kiss on her temple, and Alex tilted her head back to look up at him.

"That was a waste of a kiss," she said. "Now give me a real one."

Justin obliged, kissing Alex full on the mouth. She moved forward more, pressing her body against his, and Justin shifted as well, his arms wrapping around Alex, one hand creeping onto the cheek of her butt.

"A-hEM." The pair of them broke their kiss and looked at the duplicate Alex, who was looking at them with a mixture of curiosity, amazement, and disgust. "How can you stand to _do_ that? With _him?_"

"Oh, it's pretty easy, really," Alex answered with a smile.

"Yeah, right… well, if you two can tear away from each other for a few minutes, maybe we can do something, like, oh, figure out how we're going to solve our little problem here? Not to mention the fact that we can't all three go down to dinner."

"Okay," Justin said. "How about you go down and help Mom with dinner, while the two of us stay here and figure things out?"

"I don't think so - I leave the two of you up here, and you're likely to be doing something else instead of thinking. So - _she_ goes down and helps Mom, and _we_ stay up here and think."

Justin frowned, but nodded. "All right. That makes more sense, I guess."

Duplicate-Alex rolled her eyes at that. "You _guess_? My life's at stake here, and you're guessing about things. Somehow, this is failing to make me feel better."

The real Alex giggled at that, and the other two both turned to look at her. "_What?_" Justin asked, throwing his hands up in exasperation.

"I'm sorry, it's just - she sounds just like me, when I used to tease you."

"Yeah, like I need reminding of that."

"Ohhh… diddums get hurt feelings?" The duplicate stepped up to Justin, put a hand on his cheek. "Here, let me give you something that'll take your mind off that." She stretched up, moving a little closer, pursing her lips as if to kiss him - and then smacked Justin's cheek, hard enough to sting and immediately jumped back. "Gotcha!"

"Ow… _Alex!_" Justin cried out, covering his cheek with his left hand. "What was that for?"

"Just for the pleasure of seeing your reaction. Besides," the duplicate went on in a mocking tone, "I'm sure _she'll_ kiss it and make it feel better later."

"Oooookay," the real Alex said, stepping forward and taking the duplicate from behind by an arm. "Let's stop this before you permanently damage _my_ Justin. No hitting, kicking, biting, pinching, thumping, or wet willies. Got it?"

The duplicate glared at Alex for a few seconds, then started to slowly smile. "None of that? Okay."


	11. Chapter 11

Justin eyed Alex's duplicate sitting across from him on the bed, a wary expression on his face. This was like things used to be - too much like things used to be. He wasn't used to watching Alex like this any more, trying to anticipate when she'd pull something on him.

For her part, the duplicate looked back at him with a completely innocent expression that Justin knew far too well to trust. "Well?" she said. "You're always the idea boy. So what ideas do you have?"

"I don't know. I'm trying to think of some way to magic us out of this…." Justin paused, shook his head quickly. "The trouble is, it's like Dad says: Magic's better at creating problems than solutions."

Duplicate-Alex looked down and away at that, a sour expression coming over her face. Without thinking about it, Justin moved closer to her, turning to bring them side-to-side. "Hey… what's wrong?" he asked, putting a hand on top of hers.

She pulled her hand out from under his, turned her face away. "Is that what I am? A problem?"

"No, I didn't mean it like that. You're not a problem. Your being here is a problem, but…."

He paused, not sure what to say next, and duplicate-Alex filled the silence. "You see? You say I'm not a problem, but you don't really mean it. I'm just in the way. It's like that thing they say – if you're not part of the solution, you're part of the problem. Well, I'm not a solution to anything. I shouldn't even _be_ here – hell, I shouldn't even _be_, period. I'm…" Alex paused, her voice starting to break, then pressed on, the tone of her voice telling Justin that she was crying now, even though she was still keeping her face turned away, not wanting him to see. "I'm just another mistake that I – that Alex made. Just another damn mess for you to clean up."

Reaching his left hand out to her cheek, Justin tried to turn the duplicate's face toward him. "Hey, don't say things like that…" he started, but she pulled away, standing up off of the bed quickly. She was going for the door, Justin realized. _Oh hell – she can't go out there, someone'll see her._ He jumped off the bed, going after her, caught her by the arm and pulled her back to him. "Come _here_," he insisted, but she ducked her face down, still trying to keep him from seeing her tears.

He moved a hand to her chin, pushed her head up gently, raising her face toward him. As he'd expected, it was streaked with tears. "You are not a mess," he said, enunciating each word clearly. "You are not a problem. You are not a mistake. If you can cry like this, then you're a real person now, and I am not going to let anyone hurt you. Not even me, and not even yourself. Do you understand that?"

The duplicate finally looked him in the eyes, then swallowed and nodded, shakily. "O-okay." Justin looked back into her eyes for a few moments… and suddenly felt a strong urge to kiss her. He blinked twice at that, then moved his hand to grip her wrist, afraid she'd try to run again if he let go, and moved to pull a few tissues from the box by his bed. Turning back to her, Justin brought the tissues up and started to wipe at her tears, trying hard to think of her as just his sister – _my sister? But she's not really my sister..._ He frowned, pushing the thought away, and kept wiping, keeping his arm between the two of them so he couldn't kiss her, or hug her.

"Hey," she said after a moment, reaching up and grabbing Justin's cleaning hand by the wrist. "I'm not a mess for you to clean up, remember? I can do it." He let her go, watching her carefully, but she simply moved to his mirror and started to clean up her own face. The mirror was a small round one on his dresser, and she bent over to get her face closer to it. Justin's eyes were immediately drawn to her butt.

_Okay, get a hold on yourself, get some self control. _With an effort, he moved his gaze back up, just in time as duplicate-Alex chose then to turn around and face him. They looked at each other for a few seconds, and then she walked over to him and smiled a bit. "Okay. This is that part where I don't say thank you," she said after a moment, the smile growing a little as she did.

"Yeah," Justin replied, nodding. "And then I tell you you're welcome, and you say you would've gotten everything fixed without me."

"Exactly."

"Okay, so that's settled. Now, about our situation," he said, carefully avoiding the word 'problem', "I think I'm starting to get an idea, and…."

Suddenly, Alex stepped forward, right up to Justin, and licked the side of his face, giving it a long stroke with a very wet tongue.

"Ah!" Justin jumped back, ducking his head and raising his arms. "What was _that_ for?"

"Oh, I just wanted to see how you'd react," the duplicate replied with a grin."

"Yeah?" Justin said, then grinned as well and darted forward, grabbing duplicate-Alex with one arm around her waist and his other hand grasping her by the back of the head, just above her neck. He pulled her against himself, turned her head to the side, and licked her, his tongue moving across her neck and cheek just below and beside her ear.

She tried to pull away, but Justin tightened his grip against her struggles. "Hey!" she cried, "no fair!" But Justin continued, his licks smaller now, and the duplicate began to giggle. Justin turned her around, putting her back against his front, and moved his attention to her earlobe, licking the edge of it, then taking it between his lips and sucking lightly, sliding his mouth along the back from bottom to top as he did. A shiver went through duplicate-Alex at that, and she started to struggle less.

But then his hand moved up onto her breast. She let out a squeak, then struggled harder. "No! Justin!" Her struggling pushed her butt against his hips, and she gulped then, feeling his erection pressing against her. His hand moved down, off her breast, and she started to feel relieved, then stiffened as his fingers slipped under her waistband, seeking downward. "Don't," she said weakly. "Please…."

"Uhh - hello?" They both froze at the sound, then stupidly turned their heads to look at the door. Framed there was Max, looking at them with a curious expression. "Are you guys fighting?"

"Yeah. Yeah, we were, uh, fighting," Justin said, letting go and taking a step away, his hands automatically moving to adjust his clothing. The duplicate was doing much the same, looking down into the corner rather than at Max. "So… something you need, Max?"

"No." Max stood there, just looking. The duplicate felt a blush creeping up on her cheeks and turned away. _What the hell am I blushing for? It's not like _I_ was doing anything…._ Justin looked at Max for several seconds, with an expectant expression, but the silent look continued.

Finally, Justin asked, "Okay, well… what did you come here for, then?"

"Oh… Mom wanted me to find out what you want to drink." He nodded toward Alex, said, "Mom and her are downstairs making dinner. It'll be ready in a few minutes. So… what do you want?"

"I'll have some lemonade," Justin answered.

"We're out of lemonade."

"Okay, then iced tea."

"We're out of that, too."

Justin put a hand to his forehead and closed his eyes, took a deep breath. "What _do_ we have?"

"Coke."

There was a pause for several seconds as Justin just looked at his little brother. "Coke?"

"Yeah."

"Do we have anything else?"

"No. Mom said something about needing to go shopping later today." Max shut his mouth, then held up his finger as if he'd had an idea. "Oh! Or you could have ice water. We do have water." Duplicate-Alex fought down a giggle at that, and turned back around, her blush finally having faded.

"I'll take Coke then," Justin said in long-suffering tones.

"Okay. Alex, what do you want?"

"Gee, let me think," she said, rolling her eyes. "There's so many choices, after all…." She frowned as if she were thinking hard, looking up and to the side, tapping her nose with one finger tip. "Maybe…. Coke?"

"Okay."

"We're not out of that, right?"

"No, we're not," Max replied, his expression never changing even as duplicate-Alex fought to keep from breaking out in laughter. "So, two Cokes. Got it." He turned and headed toward the stairs.

Justin let out a long breath, then looked to the duplicate. "Hey. Sorry about that. I… I got a little carried away," he said, moving to the door and closing it again.

"A little?" She looked at Justin.

"Okay, maybe a lot. But anyway, I just… I was thinking of the other Alex, and…."

"It's okay," she said then. "I'm not mad at you. Just… try to remember that I'm not her next time."

"Okay." Justin scratched nervously, swallowed. "So, umm… we were talking about what to do about, um, you. Right?"

"Right," she answered, nodding. "So, we should, uh, we should be talking about that." A few moments went by, with both looking uncomfortable. The duplicate as the first to speak again. "I, uh, probably shouldn't ask this, but… how did you get started with this anyway?"

"Well," Justin said, "it all started back in April, when Mom and Dad were at that convention for a week…."


	12. Chapter 12

"You're kidding, right?" Alex's duplicate blinked at Justin, who had just finished relating to her the tale of how he and Alex had originally gotten together. "You didn't really do that?"

"No, that's what I did." Justin blushed slightly, swallowed, then shrugged. "You - I mean _she_ - had made it pretty clear that she wanted me. And… I wanted her too. She'd set the rules, to start with, by using those wishes on me, and…."

He paused, then shrugged again. "Look… I love you - I mean, Alex. I'd never do anything that was really going to hurt her. But… part of me likes making her do things. It's sort of like getting back at her for all the pranks and stuff." Justin looked up then, meeting the duplicate's eyes. "And let's be honest. All the teasing, all the pranks - it's just a way to get a reaction out of me. Like a little kid who breaks things because even being yelled at is better than being ignored. Right?"

The duplicate folded her arms and moved away from Justin a little, not looking at him. "I don't think I want to answer that question."

Justin sighed a little, moved toward her, took her hand. As he spoke, he traced little figure eights on the back of it. "Look. I know you're not my Alex. But… you're still Alex, and I care about you. I don't want to see you hurt."

"Yeah, well…." She looked up at him for a long moment, then blurted out, "Kiss me."

"What?" Justin blinked at her. "Wait - not five minutes ago, you were saying -"

"I know what I said. I… I want to see how it feels. You're right - I do like it when you pay attention to me. I always have, ever since I was little. So I'd steal your stuff, or play tricks on you, or tease you." She squirmed a little, looking down again, and started to turn pink. "But you're always there for me when I need you, no matter how mean I've been to you. I… I… I'vethoughtaboutitsometimes, okay? What it'd be like if we weren't - I mean, if we were…."

Justin moved his hand to her jaw and pushed it up lightly, forcing her to look at him. "You're talking too much," he said, then brought his mouth down onto hers and kissed her, his other arm wrapping around her waist. The duplicate stiffened for a moment, then relaxed as Justin used his lips to pull at hers. She tried to kiss him back, but he pulled away, then brought his mouth down on hers again, taking her lower lip between his, planting a series of small, sucking kisses across it.

She tried again to kiss him back, and Justin smiled as he pulled away again, deliberately teasing her. Leaning his head to the side, Justin moved down to her neck and began to kiss her there, alternating little nips with the same small, sucking kisses as before.

"Ohh…." Duplicate-Alex squirmed in his arms, biting her lower lip and trying to pull away, but Justin put a hand on each of her arms and pinned her against the wall, pressing himself against her, taking his mouth from her neck and moving back up toward her mouth….

"Stop… please, stop." Her voice came out barely above a whisper, husky with need, but at the same time with a frightened tone that made Justin instantly straighten up and take her in his arms, putting her head against his shoulder. He felt wetness there immediately, and stroked her hair.

"I'm sorry - it's okay, don't cry. I'm not going to make you do anything you don't want to…."

She shook her head against his shoulder, and Justin stopped talking, blinking in confusion. "Wait - you do want to? Then what -"

"I don't _know_. It felt good - really, really good. But - I can't stop thinking that you're my brother, and we shouldn't be doing this, and… oh, God, I am so messed up…."

"No, no - you're not messed up." Justin kissed her again - on the forehead, this time. "It's okay. Everything's -"

"Everything is _what_?"

Justin stiffened at the voice, then turned around. "This isn't what it looks like…."

"Oh, it's not?" The real Alex looked at the two of them. "I hope it's not, because it looks like you're - wait. Are you _crying_?" She moved over and looked carefully at the duplicate, then pulled her away from Justin. The duplicate promptly latched onto Alex as she had onto Justin before, her head against Alex's shoulder. "What are you doing to make me - to make her cry?"

The duplicate shook her head quickly. "No - it's not him. It's my fault. I just - I just wanted to know how it feels…."

Her voice trailed off, and Alex frowned. "How what feels?"

"Umm… look, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to do anything wrong - I'm sorry…."

"Okay, yes, you're sorry, I get it. You're forgiven for… for _whatever_. Now what is it?"

"She wanted me to kiss her. So I did. I - Alex, I'm sorry…."

Alex rolled her eyes. "Not you too. Okay, so she asked you to kiss her, and she did. What's with all the crying, then?"

Both Justin and the duplicate stopped, blinked, looked at Alex, then said in unison, "Wait - you're not mad?"

"Why would I be mad? You're my duplicate - if you didn't want to at least _try_ kissing Justin, then something really went wrong with the spell. And as for you -" she pointed to Justin - "you've never been able to say no to me. Why would you be able to say no to duplicate me?" She smiled, then looked at Justin. "Okay - I've been sent up to get you for dinner. So we've got to go back down right now. You," she said to the duplicate, "stay up here. We'll bring you back up some dinner later. Okay?"

"Okay," the duplicate said, nodding as she took some tissues from a box on Justin's nightstand and started to clean up her face. "I'll be quiet up here."

"Good. And don't do any magic - wait, why am I telling you this? I never listen to anyone who tells me that, why would you?"

The duplicate giggled at that, then nodded. "Yeah, well… I'll try, but I'm not making any promises."

"All right - see you soon," Justin said, waving to the duplicate as he and Alex left the room.

The duplicate watched the two of them leave, sat down on Justin's bed, then, after a few seconds, slowly let herself fall over to the left, laying down on it. _Oh hell hell hell hell_, she thought. _This is all so wrong. How am I going to get through this? _She swallowed, then closed her eyes and curled up, trying not to cry. After a few moments, she opened her eyes again, reached for a pillow, pulled it into her arms, then hugged it tightly.

She breathed in and out, slowly, trying to calm down, but she couldn't stop thinking about what had happened. _How the hell am I going to tell them that what got me horny was thinking about _Alex_?_


	13. Chapter 13

"So, Justin, how are your classes going?" Jerry looked over at his son, eyes open with interest.

"They're going great - I'm really loving my physics class - we've got this crazy professor who does things like say 'it's just simple parabolic motion, just like this,' then throw a piece of chalk across the lecture hall. The other day, he was saying, 'Let's say you have an arbitrary curved surface - like this,' and he picked up one of the plastic chairs and put it up on the table in front." As soon as he finished speaking, Justin lifted a forkful of pumpkin pie - his own bland pie - to his mouth and began to chew it.

"Good - I'm glad you're having fun, son, but I'm more interested in how your grades are," Jerry said, inclining his head toward Justin and raising an eyebrow to give his son a serious look… a look which was mostly offset by the small glob of whipped cream that was hanging from his chin.

"Oh," Justin started, "they're - ah -"

He cut off suddenly, and Jerry stopped as his fork was going into a piece of pie and looked at his son more closely. "They're what?"

"It's - ah - a little early to tell, Dad. I've only had… some homework and a couple of quizzes." Justin held his dad's gaze as he spoke, trying very hard not to look at Alex, who was sitting across the table, slumped down in her seat, her cute mouth holding an impish grin as her brother tried to continue. "The, um, the midterms and finals are most of the grade - a lot more than the homework and quizzes," he finished hurriedly, trying to get everything out while he could.

With that said, Justin shot a quick, hard glance at Alex, who returned his look with an innocent smile and continued to stroke his crotch with her outstretched foot under the table. "But you're doing well on what you have done so far, right?" Jerry asked, pointing his fork toward Justin for a moment before lifting it up and eating another piece of the pie.

"Yes, of course." Justin managed to look faintly offended at the question even while fighting to keep from squirming in his seat. "All A's, just like always, Dad."

"You see?" Theresa put in, playfully smacking her husband's arm with the back of her hand. "Of course Justin's doing fine in school. He always has." She gave her oldest child a big smile, then frowned. "You're looking a little flushed, Justin. Are you feeling all right?"

"Oh, yeah." Justin nodded and turned to the side to face his mom - a turn which moved his thigh in such a way as to push Alex's foot away. Across the table, Alex flashed Justin a momentary pouting look, which he ignored. "I'm feeling fine. It's just been an exciting day."

"Maybe. But I'm taking your temperature when we're done with dinner. And don't you roll your eyes at me!"

"Okay," Justin said, nodding. _Great. Not like I can say anything else. _He shot a quick glance at Alex, and it was her turn to redden a little.

_Oh, Hell,_ Alex thought. _She's going to want to march Justin up to his room and take his temperature there, as soon as dinner's over, just like she's always done. And the duplicate's going to be sitting right there if I don't do anything…._ "Well, I think I've had enough to eat," Alex said, pushing away from the table.

"You're not going to finish your pie?" Jerry asked, nodding at it.

"No, uh - all that talk about grades reminded me, I have some homework I need to do." She got up and pushed her chair beneath the table and turned to go, then stopped at the sound of her dad's voice, tensing as she wondered what he might want.

"So you don't mind if I eat the rest of it, right?"

_Of course. _Alex almost sighed with relief. _What else would Dad be asking?_ "Sure - knock yourself out, Dad." She headed toward the stairs, trying not to hurry so much that it would seem strange.

Theresa Russo watched as her daughter moved up the stairs, waiting until Alex was out of sight before turning to her husband. "Did _our_ daughter just go up to do her homework without having to be told?"

"Mmm?" Jerry looked up from the half a slice of pie Alex had left behind, his mouth full. Quickly, he swallowed, then nodded. "Yes, I think she did."

"Well." Theresa smiled and put her hand on Justin's shoulder for a moment. "I think you're rubbing off on your sister a little, Justin."

Justin gave his mother a startled look and blinked twice before he realized that she'd said "rubbing", and not the "getting" he'd thought for a moment he'd hear. "Oh, uh, good," he answered, then imitated his father with his own piece of pie to forestall any further conversation.

Upstairs, Alex opened the door to Justin's room, then did a 'follow me' gesture to her duplicate, repeated it when she didn't move immediately. The duplicate opened her mouth to speak, but Alex held her finger to her lips and _shh'_ed at her. The two of them walked out of Justin's room, with Alex silently closing the door behind them, and into Alex's.

With that door closed as well, the duplicate finally spoke. "What? What's going on?"

Rolling her eyes, Alex answered, "Mom's in full-on 'my little baby' mode with Justin. Thinks he's getting a fever or something, just because he was a little red."

"Why was he red?" the duplicate asked, laying down on the bed as she did.

"I was playing with him with my foot under the table." Alex picked up her school backpack as she spoke, set it on her desk, unzipped it.

"Wait - while you were having dinner? With everybody _there?_" The duplicate sat upright, then laughed. "Oh wow! I would have loved to see him trying to keep a straight face through that!"

Alex turned to look at her duplicate and smiled. "Yeah - it really was pretty sweet. You know - sometimes I miss pranking him like I used to. But then I get to do things like this, and it kind of makes up for it."

"Well, I'm glad to see you're not just being all sweet and stuff with him all the time. I was starting to feel kind of sick to my stomach, the way you two were being all lovey-dovey." The duplicate looked down at the blankets and started to pick at them, pulling them up a little, then watching how they went back down. Then she blinked as her history textbook landed in front of her on the bed.

"I told Mom I was going to do homework. You do that, I'll do math."

"Wait - why am I doing this?" The duplicate flipped the book over, moving quickly and with obvious distaste, as if it were some sort of loathsome animal.

"Because I'm going to have to sneak down and get food for you later, and I'm hiding you from Mom right now, so you don't have Dad trying to figure out how to get rid of you. So in return, you get to help with my homework."

The duplicate looked at Alex for a minute, making a face, then said, "Okay, whatever. You need to toss me a pencil and some paper too, then, though."

A few minutes later, the duplicate was playing with her pencil while thinking about one of the history questions. At least, she was supposed to be thinking about the question - in reality, she was spending more time watching Alex.

It was strange, watching her. The same face she saw in the mirror every morning, the same body that she saw every time she took a shower... but somehow, on the other girl, it all seemed much more intriguing. Maybe it was the different point of view, but she couldn't help watching as Alex chewed the end of her pencil. As she brushed a stray lock of hair away. As she scratched under an arm. _Oh wow, I am totally into me. Of course, who wouldn't be? I mean, out of straight guys and…. Wait. Am I gay? I don't think I'm gay. Maybe I'm bi. Well, either way, I'm really, really cute. I can see why Justin wound up being so into me._

"Uh… is there something wrong?"

"What?" the duplicate asked, blinking.

"You're staring at me. Do I have something on me?" Alex started reaching for her back, feeling to see if anything was there.

"Oh, uh - no. Sorry. I was just, uh, thinking."

Alex turned in her chair to look at her duplicate. "What about?"

The duplicate looked up from the history book, where she'd looked down to hide the blush that was beginning to creep up her face. "What?"

"What were you thinking about? I mean, the questions there don't really require thinking - just looking stuff up in the book. So I'm hoping you were thinking about something else, because whatever it is, there's no way it could be more boring than this math homework."

"Nothing, umm... important. Just thinking about someone I like." _Oh damn - why did I say that? I'm too flustered... now she'll want to know who..._

"Oh, really?" Alex stood up and crossed to the bed, sat down next to the duplicate. "Who is it?"

"Uh, well..."

"If it's Justin, I already said that's okay. And if it's someone else, well - that's not a problem either, is it?" Alex set her hand by the duplicate's and linked fingers with her. The duplicate looked at their hands for a fraction of a second, then away from them, up to Alex's face. _Don't play with her hand. Don't stare. Don't keep looking into her eyes..._ "So tell me - who?"

As Alex spoke, the duplicate was thinking desperately, trying to come up with someone. _Not Dean. Not Justin - if I say him, she'll _expect_ us to do stuff. Who?_ She racked her brain, but realized as she did that she wasn't even sure what guys she was in classes with this year. _Probably because Alex hasn't been paying attention to them. Oh, I can't think - her face is too close - I could lean forward and we'd be kissing..._

"Hey. How's it going?" Justin's voice interrupted, and both Alexes turned to look at him as he shut the door. He frowned a moment, looking at the two of them, then asked, "What are you two doing?"

"Just talking. Girl stuff." Alex slid off the bed and moved over to Justin, stretched up to kiss him briefly. Justin took hold of her by the arms and held her there for a moment, prolonging the kiss, and the duplicate looked away from them.

"So, how'd it go with Mom?" Alex asked after they broke the kiss.

Justin rolled his eyes as he sat down on Alex's desk chair and Alex returned to the bed. "Ninety-eight point six perfect. Good thing, since I think Mom was looking for any excuse to baby me more."

"Well, that's good. Did you come up with an idea about what we can do?"

"No, not yet, "Justin said, giving Alex a look, but smiling with it, "I had a little matter of somebody distracting me while I was at dinner."

"Okay, well... I guess you'll sleep here tonight, then," Alex said, looking to the duplicate, "and I'll go to Justin's." She stood up and stretched, then started to move to Justin, and the duplicate frowned. _Yeah. Just run off and abandon me as soon as Justin's free._

Aloud, she said, "Did you finish the math?"

"What? Oh, there's like three problems left to do. Can you get those?"

"I can, but... just don't leave right now!" she found herself saying, getting off of the bed. "This whole thing is just... I don't know what I'm doing! I don't know..." _I don't know what I'm feeling. I don't know why I'm feeling like this. I don't know if I can tell you..._ "I just don't know, okay?" she called out, too loudly, and Justin looked toward the door, making shushing motions with his hands, and the duplicate suddenly realized she was crying. Turning away, she threw herself on the bed.

"Dad's coming up the stairs," Alex said. "I'll be at your room, okay?"

"Right," Justin answered with a nod. "Go on." She teleported out, and he crossed the room to the other Alex, sat down on the bed beside her, and gingerly touched her on the back.

"Hey... it's okay. I don't know what's wrong, but I'll help you with -" He cut off as there was a rapping knock on the door - their father, knocking with one knuckle the way he did when he was going to come in regardless. Sure enough, the door opened, and Jerry Russo stepped into the doorway.

"Is everything okay up here?" he asked, in tones that clearly indicated he knew everything wasn't.

Justin stood and crossed to the door, then spoke to his father very quietly. "Alex is having a problem with a guy she likes at school - nothing serious," he said even more quietly, putting up a hand before their dad could panic. "Just high school drama," he went on, deliberately rolling his eyes in a 'thank god I'm out of _there_' manner. "I'll talk to her about it. You go back to watching the Giants. I've got this one, dad."

Jerry looked at his son for a moment, then nodded, put a hand on Justin's shoulder, and squeezed. "You're a good brother, Justin."

As his father went back downstairs, Justin crossed back to the bed, sat on it again, and brushed Alex's duplicate's hair with his hand. "Okay... talk to me."


	14. Chapter 14

The duplicate didn't answer, but Justin didn't ask again. Instead, he simply stayed by her, stroking her hair, letting his fingers trail onto her back with each stroke, letting his touch remind her of his presence without pushing. After a minute, her sobbing slowed, then stopped. She reached a hand forward, grasping for the tissues by the bed, and Justin reached out, moved them into her reach.

Tearing out a few, she sat up, facing away from him while she wiped and blotted her face with the tissues. He waited patiently - a thing he'd learned in the last few months. This was almost familiar territory, now, and Justin wondered how Alex had managed before. She was much more sensitive than she normally let anyone see, and sometimes she was still reluctant even to let Justin see her when she was upset. It hurt sometimes to be pushed away, but he understood that she didn't mean to hurt him - and certainly didn't want him to really leave, no matter how she pushed.

As she was finishing, Justin spoke again. "All right. Talk. Tell me what's wrong." He placed a hand on hers, squeezed lightly.

"No," she said, shaking her head quickly. "It's..." She stopped, shook her head again, looked away from Justin. "Just go on and go. I'll be okay."

Justin put his hand on her shoulder. "I want to help. I... look. I can't stand to see you hurt. You should know that. And I'm not going to leave until you talk to me. Alex -" He stopped then, frowning. It didn't feel right to call her Alex, but...

"What?" she said, turning to look at him.

"Umm... is there something else I can call you?"

The duplicate narrowed her eyes at Justin, said, "Alex is my name. You can call me that."

Justin opened his mouth, shut it, then nodded. "Okay. Alex, tell me what's wrong. Whatever it is, I can help you fix it." He paused, gave her a smile. "Don't I always?"

She looked at Justin for a moment, then smiled a little and nodded. "Yeah - you do."

* * *

Justin appeared in his dorm room and looked around, then smiled as he saw Alex on the bed, sleeping on her side. He moved closer, not making any noise so as not to wake her, then sat slowly down onto his desk chair and looked at her. She'd turned on her side and had her arms wrapped around one pillow, holding onto it like a teddy bear. Her hair was spread out partway across his pillow, shining black against the bleached white of the pillowcase, and her lips were just barely parted, and right at that moment, Justin couldn't think of anything more beautiful.

_I'm not going to wake her up_, he thought. _She doesn't get enough sleep anyway. _Moving carefully, Justin climbed onto the bed with Alex, moved behind her, and slid one arm under her neck, draped the other across her. She stirred as he did, said, "Justin?" - but he simply kissed her on the cheek, then whispered back. "It's okay. Sleep."

"Okay," she answered back, then wriggled a little, pushing herself more firmly against him. He waited, staying as still as he could, until her breathing fell back into the rhythm of her sleep, before whispering, "I love you, Alex." She didn't stir or seem to notice in any way, but that was all right - she was here, with him, and that was what mattered.

* * *

Alex woke up and looked at the clock, had to blink her eyes a couple of times before it came into focus, showing _2:14._ She stiffened with the beginnings of panic for half a moment before she remembered that the duplicate was at home, then relaxed. After a moment she got out of bed, turned the lamp on, then turned back to look at Justin. He was fully dressed, as she was, and she frowned a little at that. _He should have woken me up instead of letting us sleep in our clothes. Everything's going to get wrinkled._

_Well... I can take care of that._ Pulling out her wand, Alex paused and tapped her chin with it, thinking for a moment, then smiled and nodded. "_Justin shouldn't sleep in his clothes, so tuck him in and let him doze."_ In a twinkling, Justin was under the covers and his clothes were in a neat pile on the floor - and it hadn't woken him up. _Not that I was worried about that. He still sleeps like a rock._ Alex smiled at that, reminded of how she used to sneak into his room at night to play tricks on him.

_Of course, sometimes I still do play tricks on him. Just not the same kind._ She looked down at her brother, and her smile grew. _Mmm… I think I am going to wake him up. But first, I'll take care of what woke me up._ Standing, Alex took the key to Justin's room, wishing yet again as she did that the college didn't stamp "DO NOT DUPLICATE" on all their keys. _Of course, I could just go through the door - but people are up all hours here, and if I do that all the time, sooner or later someone's going to see._ And while no one might care about a student having a girl sleeping with him in his room, they definitely _would_ care about a girl who could walk through doors.

So Alex let herself out, padded silently on her bare feet down the hall to the stairs, opened the door, then wrinkled her nose. _Eww. Something smells. _She considered going back to the room for Justin's slippers, not wanting to walk barefooted up the stinky stairs, then smiled. _Well, no one should notice a little magic like this…._

"_This floor makes me want to spit, so let me levitate above it._" Alex smiled as her feet just barely lifted off the floor - perhaps half an inch, no more - and then she half-skipped up them. At the next floor, she opened the door, then started down the hall toward the bathroom. _Oh, hey, someone's gotten creative._ On the walls between the dorm room doors, someone had started painting. Alex passed first a painting of Robert Pattinson as Edward from _Twilight. _Glancing at it, she rolled her eyes. "_So_ overdone. And really, why would anyone want to date a vampire?" Next up, someone had painted a field of flowers with a rainbow. "Not bad," she commented, pausing to look for a moment. "Kind of stereotypically girly, but not bad." The third painting was a careful rendition of Hokusai's _The Great Wave_. "Also overdone," she commented. "Try doing something that not everyone's seen already." Last before the bathroom was a rendition of the movie poster of _The Last Unicorn_ - but with a man done in the same cartoon style, but obviously intended to be Neal Patrick Harris, riding the unicorn. "… and this one wins," Alex said, nodding as she looked at it. "Nice job, Unknown Artist."

A few minutes later, Alex returned to Justin's room and carefully shut the door behind her, making no noise. She rose up onto the balls of her feet, then cancelled the levitation spell, letting her calf muscles absorb the impact of the half-inch drop when the spell let go. Padding over to the bed, Alex, pulled the covers back from Justin. He stirred slightly, and she froze for a moment, then started to move again once he settled back down. As she pulled the covers back further, Alex saw that Justin was naked, and had to stifle a giggle at that. _I guess my spell didn't know where to stop on the sleeping with no clothes thing. Well, that's okay... it just makes this easier._

Moving onto the bed, Alex took Justin's cock in her hand, then waited for a few moments, just holding it. _Well, this is different_, she thought. _I don't usually get to hold it when it's soft._ Not sure how much she could do with him in this state and not hurt him, Alex simply moved her hand back and forth just a tiny bit. Justin stirred a little again, and she looked up to make sure he wasn't waking up. _Eyes still closed. Good._ _Oh... I think he's starting to feel it._

He was stiffening in her hand, but Alex kept moving it back and forth, shifting her grip a little to accommodate Justin's growing size as he became hard. Soon, he was fully hard, and hadn't seemed to wake up yet. Moving down the bed, Alex paused a second to look at her brother's stiff cock. Up close like this, it always seemed huge to her, like it shouldn't fit in her - but it certainly did, she thought smiling. _It fits very, very nicely._ Looking up at Justin's face, she started to lick him, first making a few licks around the head, then a longer one up his shaft.

Again, Justin stirred, but his eyes remained closed, and Alex grinned a little, then took him into her mouth, sliding the head in and out as she worked her hand up and down his shaft. _Let's see how long he stays asleep now_. Sure enough, in just a few moments Justin began to stir again, this time making noise as he did. "Oh… oh yeah. Oh, Alex…."

Alex took Justin deeper into her mouth, trying to see how much she could take, had to back off slightly. Moving her free hand down, she gently stroked his balls, was rewarded with a change in the tone of Justin's sounds. "Ohh… Oh!" His hips started to move, meeting her own movements, and his hands moved to her head, his fingers tangling in Alex's hair. She let him take control, enjoying the feeling of it in a different way, and after a moment a shiver ran through her.

"Yeah, that's it… take it, Alex… take it like a good girl…." Justin was moving his hips steadily now, sliding in and out of Alex's mouth as she sucked on him, his voice changing to a wordless moan as he did. His grip slackened, and Alex twisted her head slightly, pushed her mouth down further on him, had to stop and back off slightly. Then his hands were pulling her up, off of him, and Alex looked at her brother in slight surprise.

Justin rolled Alex over, sliding one arm under her torso, the other under her legs. Lifting her slightly, Justin moved Alex up against the headboard. "Stay here," he said with a smile, wagging a finger under her nose.

"Okay," Alex replied brightly, smiling. "But don't take long."

"Oh, I won't… I just need to get a couple of things here," Justin replied, moving to the closet, opening it, then getting down the box. He pulled out the blindfold and handcuffs, then moved back over to Alex. "Now let's see here…." Taking her arm, he pulled it over to one rail of the headboard, snapped the cuff around her wrist, then around the rail. "That's to make sure you don't go anywhere."

"Oh, I wasn't going to."

"Mmmm… you say that now," Justin teased, setting one knee on the mattress as he approached with the blindfold. Alex moved her head away, grinning, moved again as Justin followed.

"Maybe I won't let you blindfold me," she teased, and stuck her tongue out at him. Her giggle a moment later ruined the effect, however, and she had to move back in the other direction as Justin approached again, unable to move any further away with the handcuff.

Justin moved the rest of the way onto the bed, dropping the blindfold for a moment, pushed Alex down and straddled her, then took the blindfold again and tied it on.

"Mmm… you're so bad, Justin, forcing me like this. Do you like forcing me?"

"You know I do," he breathed into her ear, then licked it. "But now it's time for a surprise…." Justin moved off of Alex, and she waited, breathing fast, wondering just what Justin was going to do to her.


	15. Chapter 15

Blindfolded, Alex moaned softly as she felt Justin's hands on her, pulling off her skirt, then the leggings that had been underneath it. Next, he opened her shirt, then reached around Alex's back and unclasped her bra. For a moment, he wasn't touching her, and Alex squirmed, rocking her hips up and down, wondering if he was looking at her, hoping he was.

"Where are you, Justin?" Alex smiled and licked her lips, started to writhe with her whole body, undulating on her brother's bed. "Come touch me... you know you want to..." She moaned again then as hands touched her body, one on the outside of each thigh, glided up toward her hips, caressing as they went. The fingers slid under the legbands of her panties, and Alex didn't bother to hide her approval at all. "Oh, yes... take those right off me. I'm sooo ready for you, Justin. Feel me and see..."

The hands turned and grasped Alex's panties by the sides, then began to pull down, slowly sliding them off. Alex lifted her legs to help, drawing her knees up toward her chest, then let her legs back down as the panties came off. A hand touched her again, sliding up between her legs, and she shivered, anticipating the touch, then gasped as a tongue touched her nipple, ran across it, then around in a slow circle.

_Damn_, Justin thought, watching from his desk chair as the duplicate touched and teased Alex, _that's hot. Of course, it should be,_ he thought, grinning. _Just watching Alex is hot enough. Watching two of her..._ It was making him so hard it was aching, and he licked his lips and swallowed. _I just hope Alex doesn't completely freak when she realizes that's not me._ And she would, he was sure - she might be blindfolded and in a lust-induced haze, but the size and weight of them was too different. Surely she'd realize before long.

Justin watched as the duplicate kissed and sucked on Alex's breasts, and had to take a deep breath and let it out slowly, fighting the urge to move over and join her. Alex continued to squirm, trying to press her body up against the duplicate's, but the duplicate drew back, then moved in again, taking a moment to flip the ponytail her hair was in back onto her own back so it wouldn't brush against Alex as she kissed her belly.

_She's going to figure it out any second. Better if we tell her first._ Justin stood, stepped over to the bed, reached down and touched the duplicate on the shoulder. She looked up at him, and he lifted a finger to his lips for silence, then gestured for her to move out of the way. The duplicate gave him a familiar angry expression - _yeah, I know _that _expression well -_ but moved away, and he moved in, reached a hand up to cup his sister's cheek, leaned in and kissed her.

Alex opened her mouth a little to let him in, but Justin kept it a surface kiss, teasing her by pulling at her lips, with his, touching them with his tongue but not entering. She moaned again and tried to move her head forward to deepen the kiss, but Justin pulled back slightly, smiling as he did, and she couldn't move far enough with the handcuffs.

"Ohh... are you just going to keep teasing me?" Alex asked then, and Justin stroked her cheek, continued the motion down across her neck, onto her chest, ending it by cupping Alex's breast.

"I'm not going to tease you," he said then. "We are."

"What?" Alex asked, and Justin leaned in and kissed her then, pushing his tongue into her mouth, grasping her by the back of her head, holding her in the kiss. After a few seconds, he broke the kiss, said, "Your duplicate's here too, Alex. And she wants to do some things to you." Alex opened her mouth, but Justin moved his hand again, put it over her mouth, said, "Rule two. I'm not asking you, Alex. I'm telling you. You're going to let her do what she wants. Do you understand?"

He didn't remove his hand from Alex's mouth, and after a moment, she nodded, a little jerkily. "All right," he said then, releasing his grip. He bent his head down, kissed Alex again, reaching back with one hand to gesture the duplicate forward as he did. Justin kept up the kiss as the duplicate moved into position, climbing onto the bed next to Alex, and when he broke the kiss and moved aside, she moved in immediately, bringing her mouth onto Alex's, placing her hands on Alex's waist.

Justin moved back just a little, staying on the bed, and fought the urge to touch himself as he watched the two Alexes kiss. At first, the real Alex stayed still, unsure about what was happening, but then she began to kiss back tentatively. Smiling at that, Justin moved in beside Alex and licked the edge of her earlobe, then took it between his lips and sucked gently. He moved his hand to Alex's breast, and felt the duplicate stiffen for a moment as the backs of his fingers touched her.

The duplicate shifted then, moving to the other side of Alex from Justin, shot him a momentary grin, then began to work on Alex's other earlobe, trying to fight from laughing, as she knew just how sensitive she was there. Between them, Alex moaned and tried to turn her head to the side to kiss Justin, but he caught her chin with his hand and held her in place as the two of them licked and kissed her, felt her shiver between them.

Justin moved his hand down between Alex's legs, reaching for her opening, only to find the duplicate's hand already there, moving slowly as she slid a finger in and out of Alex. He smiled a little at that and brought his hand back up, moved it in circles on his sister's belly, kissing down onto her neck as he did. Working his way to the back of her neck, Justin planted a series of sucking kisses, lifting Alex's hair up, grasping it firmly. Firmly, he used her hair to make her turn her head, facing her toward the duplicate. Justin couldn't see the duplicate kissing Alex, but he felt her move on the bed, heard the sounds of it.

His hand slid up from Alex's belly and onto her breast, which he gripped and squeezed for a moment as he nipped the back of her neck, causing her to gasp into the duplicate's mouth. Grinning at that, Justin stroked her breast with his hand, stroking thumb and forefinger toward her nipple, ending each stroke with a delicate pinch, and lowered his mouth to the back of her neck, sucking hard and biting there, where the faint ghost of the last time he'd marked Alex there was still on her skin.

The duplicate pulled away then, moving back on the bed, and Justin was gratified and a little amused to see Alex try to follow with her head, trying to continue the kiss. "Lay her down," the duplicate said, and Justin broke off from marking the back of Alex's neck to look at the duplicate for a moment, then nodded. Moving off the bed, he took Alex's right wrist in his hand, reached for the safety latch on the handcuffs, but didn't release her yet.

"Alex, I'm going to uncuff you, but you're not allowed to use your hands. We can touch you, but you can't touch us. Do you understand?"

She hesitated a moment, thinking, _Oh, this isn't going to be easy._ Then she smiled, though, realizing that if she disobeyed, Justin would find some way to punish her - and just thinking about that made her feel more squirmy than she already was. "Yes, sir," she answered, "I understand."

"Good girl." Justin pushed the latch on the cuffs and released them, then stooped over Alex, sliding his hands under her back, up to grip her shoulders. He pulled her down on the bed, looking into her eyes as he did, then kissed her, probing slowly with his tongue, one hand moving out from under Alex to stroke and touch her breast.

Alex kept her arms at her sides, trying not to touch him in return, and then arched her back and moaned into the kiss as she felt her duplicate's tongue gently glide across her opening. Justin shifted on top of Alex, holding her down as the duplicate kissed and licked her folds, parted them with a finger, then began to slide it in and out as she continued to kiss Alex there.

For his part, Justin began to kiss Alex all over her neck, shoulders, and breasts, placing each kiss in a different spot at random, smiling as he teased her like that. She moaned again, more loudly this time, and he brought his mouth down onto hers and stifled her moan, pushing his tongue in to meet hers. After a few moments, Justin broke the kiss, and Alex bit her lip and squirmed, then started to move her hands down to touch her duplicate.

Before they touched, however, Justin took her by her wrists and pinned her arms to the bed. "Uh-uh," he said aloud. "I told you not to use your hands. Now you'll have to take your punishment." Alex struggled lightly, hearing the words, but not really comprehending them through the sensations that were washing over her, spreading out like ripples in a pool from between her legs as the duplicate licked, kissed, and fingered her. She let out a cry and shivered as an orgasm swept through her, cried out again as Justin took her nipple in his mouth and sucked it hard as she came.

She felt Justin let go of her nipple, let go of her with his hands - and then his hand was on her chin, pulling it down, and he entered her mouth, pushed in a couple of inches. "Show me you can be a good girl, Alex. Suck me," he said, and she did, closing her mouth around him as Justin began to rock back and forth slowly. Another orgasm hit, and she moaned around him, unable to prevent it.

"I don't think that's punishing her enough," the duplicate said then, speaking for the first time since she'd been teleported into the room. "Why don't we switch?"

Alex tried to say something in response, but Justin was still in her mouth, and then he was answering. "Yes. Alex - I'm ordering you to do what she just did to you. Do you understand me?" He slipped out of her mouth as he asked, but Alex didn't answer right away, thinking, _Oh - I don't know if I can..._

Then she gasped as Justin's hand smacked her ass cheek hard. "Alex, answer me. Do you understand?"

"I... I, uh..." Another smack landed, and this time Alex cried out a little, as much from surprise as from the stinging feel of it following so soon after the first. "Yes, sir," she got out before Justin could spank her again, and then she swallowed and repeated it, more slowly. "Yes, sir."


	16. Chapter 16

"Good girl," Justin said, stroking his hand along Alex's body, feeling the curves of it and smiling. She pressed herself against his hand as it moved, making him smile more, and he slid his hand back up to her breast, rubbed his fingers in circles around her nipple, looking his sister's body up and down.

"Uh... don't leave me out here," the duplicate said then, and Justin blinked, looked at her.

"Oh, right... okay, you get on the bed, on your back," he said to her. As she did, he half-lifted Alex off the bed, getting her out of the way. "Now your turn. Get that cute butt up." Alex crawled onto the bed, feeling carefully as she went since she was still blindfolded. Her hand touched the duplicate's leg, and she slid her hand up along it, found where it met the hip, crawled forward and began to kiss the inside of the duplicate's thigh.

As she kissed, she moved her right hand forward and found that her duplicate had already removed her panties. Touching gingerly, she found that the duplicate was very wet there already. _She's not the only one_, she thought. Moving her hand into place, she began to rub the outside of the duplicate's entrance, then teasingly drew a finger up along her folds, at the same time moving up a little to kiss her belly, then tongue her navel.

Her duplicate moaned softly in response, and then Alex moaned as well as she felt Justin touch her, parting her fold with his finger, then pushing his hard rod into her. It slid in easily, and Alex made a soft cry as Justin began to take her with quick, hard strokes, pausing just a moment between them.

"How does that feel?" her duplicate asked wonderingly, and Alex smiled, then answered, "Kind of like this..." and pushed two fingers into her and began to pump them in and out the same way Justin was doing to her. A startled "Ohh!" was the duplicate's reply, and Alex grinned, then pushed in fully and turned her hand back and forth.

"Don't stop... keep pounding it like that," the duplicate moaned, and Alex did as requested, returning to pumping her. Justin changed his rhythm, no longer pausing, but instead gripping Alex by the hips and pounding her furiously. She tried to match what he was doing with her hand, but had to stop as another shuddering orgasm went through her.

Justin slowed then and reached forward to stroke Alex's back. "Get her off, Alex," he said. "You don't get another one until you do." He pulled out of her to make good on his word, then sat down on the chair to watch. Alex set back to fingering her duplicate, using the same pounding stroke as before, then gingerly lowered her head down and began to lick at the top of the duplicate's folds, moved her tongue in circles there, at the most sensitive point. She was rewarded by a moan from the duplicate, who also began to move her hips, pushing them up at Alex, rolling them from side-to-side as she did.

"Yes... yes... right there," the duplicate called out, and Alex took a deep breath and then kissed her there, sucking and licking on that point as she continued to work her fingers in and out, rotating her hand back and forth as she did. The duplicate's cries became louder, and then her body shook as she came. Immediately, Alex felt Justin enter her again and begin pounding her with fast, hard strokes, and only moments later he came as well.

The three of them crawled onto the bed, Alex in the middle, and both Justin and the duplicate put their arms around Alex and began to kiss her softly in the afterglow.

* * *

An hour later, Justin came into the room, returning from the bathroom, and said, "I think I know what we can do."

"Do that again?" Alex asked, smiling hazily, her eyes half-closed as she lay on the bed with the duplicate.

"Well, yes, if..." Justin paused, frowning.

"Oh, the hell with it," the duplicate said, rolling her eyes. "Call me Lexie if the great big brain can't handle calling both of us Alex."

Justin nodded to her, then continued. "If Lexie wants to. But that's not what I was talking about."

"Oh?" Alex looked up at her brother as he sat down on the edge of the bed. "What are you talking about, then?"

"What to do about there being two of you."

"Oh... that. We already decided."

"What?" Justin blinked and shook his head. "When?"

"While you were gone, we talked about it."

"Yeah," Lexie said, grinning at Justin. "We've got it all worked out."

"I have a feeling I'm going to regret this," Justin said, shaking his head, "but tell me how you've worked it out."

"Well, my dupl... Lexie kind of came up with the idea."

"Okay," Justin said and shifted his gaze to Lexie, who sat up and stretched. "Tell me the idea."

"Well, really, it's as much Alex's idea as mine. We worked it out together." She grinned.

Justin held up both hands, palms out. "Okay. I surrender. The two of you are not only beautiful, but brilliant as well, since you came up with a plan before I did. Now... can I hear it? Pretty please?"

Alex sat up as well, moved over next to Lexie. "I don't know... you didn't say 'with sugar on top.'"

Fighting down a grin, Justin crawled onto the bed and brought his face to Alex's, close enough to feel each other's breath. "Don't make me have to threaten to not spank you," he said. "Now tell me."

Alex turned to Lexie, said, "You see how he is? So impatient."

"I know." Lexie patted Alex's hand. "I'm sorry you're going to have to put up with him all the time."

"Put up with you all the - wait. So... you're going to keep living with mom and dad," Justin said, pointing to Lexie, "and you're going to live here with me?" he finished, moving his pointing finger to Alex.

"He's starting to get it," Lexie said to Alex, then turned back to Justin. "Yes. I'm going to keep being Alex.

Justin tilted his head and frowned. "And you're going to... what? Just live here in my room and do nothing? As much as I'd love to have you with me all the time, that doesn't seem like -"

Alex reached out and put a finger to Justin's lips, grinning. "We're not done yet. She'll do that. _I_ am going to get my GED - with your help, of course - and then go to art school. Of course, we'll have to do a little magic to give me a new identity, but..." Alex shrugged and smiled at Justin, who was still frowning.

Bringing his hand up to his chin, Justin sat back and looked up into the corner of the room, thinking. "That could actually work. There's some details that need to be worked out, but... it could work."

"Yes," Alex said nodding and smiling. "And with Lexie being me, you and I can be together, without any worries at all."

"I don't know about the no worries at all," Justin said, and Alex frowned at him, "but I think we can work through everything else," he finished quickly, and she smiled again.

"Well," Lexie said, stepping off the bed. "I'm going to go back home before mom and dad notice I'm missing. You two can work out the rest of the details. I know _my_ part already."

"Bye," Alex and Justin said together as Lexie teleported herself out. Justin turned back to Alex and opened his mouth to keep talking, but she put a finger to his lips again, moving closer.

"No. We're not going to worry about any more details right this minute. We've got plenty of time to work it out. And right now, I have something else I want to say."

Alex paused, and Justin raised an eyebrow, tilted his head, and said, "Yes?"

"It's time we added a new rule to our arrangement," Alex said, then paused again.

"Oh? What's that?"

"Rule five," she said, moving forward into Justin's arms, wrapping her own around his chest. "Is I love you too, Justin."

"Always and forever?" he asked, smiling down at her.

"You know it," Alex answered, tilting her head back and stretching up into a kiss.


	17. Afterword

Afterword

That's it for this story - the "problem" of the duplicate is resolved, so it's time to move on. But don't worry - I'm not done with Alex and Justin yet! I've got a few different ideas for stories with them, and I'm not 100% sure which one I'm going to do next - I think it'll be the one I'm calling "Fun and Games", but that's four years into the future for them, so I may do a shorter one that's not quite so far out first.

Thanks to everyone who's been reading and reviewing, and to all of you who have sent me private comments - this one really wound up dragging out (it's been over a year since it started!), but the feedback kept me coming back until it was finally done.

My life seems to finally be calming down again after the confusion it's been for the past year, so I've been able to get the last few chapters out at a much more reasonable pace, and I hope to be able to keep that up again, as I did with the first three stories last year.

At this point, I plan to continue on with the AU I've established now - honestly, I don't like some of what Disney's done with WoWP over the last year, so I'm happy to have the excuse to ignore it. Jerry and Theresa have turned into clueless sitcom parents (I was much happier when Jerry was teaching the kids magic, and sometimes was the one who fixed the messes), the writers seem to have no idea what they're doing with Max, and they still can't find anyone that Justin and Alex have half the chemistry they have with each other to put them with... but they keep trying.

I do like Harper establishing a relationship with Zeke, so I'll happily pull that in from the show, though.

Semi-random things that may or may not relate to future stories:

- In the first season of WoWP, during "Movies", it's mentioned that Justin is 16. In "Quinceañera", which aired eight months later, Alex turns 15. From those reference points, I have Justin being two years older than Alex - so, in the stories so far, Justin has been 18 and Alex 16. Max's age hasn't been mentioned in the show that I've seen, but the actor is two years younger than Selena, and another two-year difference seems about right, so I've been setting Max at an immature-for-his-age 14.

- At the start of season three, it's mentioned that Justin has completed his wizard training with their dad. At that point, he should be 17 or possibly even 18. It seems to me that the wizard competition wouldn't be held until all the children had completed their initial training... and so I'm thinking it wouldn't happen until after Max turns 18, giving the characters three to four years until they have to worry about it at the time my stories so far have been set. (I've been thinking for a long time though that Disney is going to weasel their way out of the competition, and it looks like they're setting up to do that with the season finale this season.)

- The events of "Delinquent Justin" seem to indicate that Alex is easily capable of faking everything that's needed for someone to get into college, since she was able to send Justin's clone to college. (Which creates its own set of problems, like "If duplicate Justin went to college using the name Justin Russo, as seems to have happened, isn't that going to cause problems for the real Justin going into college?" But I'm verging on a rant about how the show has declined, so let's just leave that...) So getting Alex into art school shouldn't be a big problem. Paying for art school may be a bit of a problem, though, but that's heading into one of my story ideas right now...

- As far as canon goes, my AU diverges from WoWP somewhere between "Baby Cupid" and "Future Harper" (i.e., "Baby Cupid" explicitly did happen in my AU, and "Future Harper" did not). I do, however, reserve the right to use anything that I like from post-"Future Harper" episodes (see, for example, my note above on Harper and Zeke). I don't like what was done with the whole "Wizards vs. Vampires" sequence of shows, so while vampires may show up in one of my future stories, don't expect them to be anything like the ones there - and neither Justin's relationship with Juliet nor Alex's with Mason happened in my AU.

... and that's it for now. Expect to see my next Alex & Justin story starting in a week or so. And thanks again to all my readers!


End file.
